


Don't Talk to Monsters

by crylorenaissance



Category: IT (2017), Lost Boys (Movies)
Genre: (all the time), F/M, Nightshade is a mom friend, abuse tw, and she knows no fear, everyone is in high school, im so sorry, lots of blood, modern!AU, rape ment tw, the boys get into fights with the bowers gang sometimes, the vamps are the exact opposite of subtle, they protect the losers, vamps!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-01-20 02:23:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 13
Words: 21,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12423102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crylorenaissance/pseuds/crylorenaissance
Summary: Santa Carla was great, but everyone suspected those five rowdy teenagers on the boardwalk of something. So, they packed up and moved to Derry, Maine. They found a niche protecting some kids who were social outcasts and scaring the shit out of some bullies. But that damn clown that keeps stealing kids? Starting to piss them off.Special thanks to my dear friend @carrionkid on Tumblr for helping me come up with ideas for Nightshade and the gang!





	1. Prologue

“The doormat reads that we can come in. Also, Bill told us we could. He said there's some food he wants us to eat,” Nightshade told David, climbing through the cat flap the Denbrough family had for some reason.

“If we get arrested, I'm blaming you.”

“You'll take the fall before the cops even get near us. You did it back in Santa Carla all the time.”

David huffed as he entered the house. Nightshade was right. He once got arrested for her. She got arrested, too, but that was beside the point.

They silently walked into the kitchen and grabbed the plate Bill had left for them. Garlic bread.  _ Homemade _ garlic bread. Nightshade climbed up onto the counter and bumped her foot against the side. She and David both froze before remembering that Bill was the only one home. Besides his little brother, but the kid probably slept like the dead.

“Who are you?”

_ Shit. _

Nightshade, still crouched on the counter, froze.

“He isn't a dinosaur. He already saw us.”

“You'll alert him if you keep talking.”

Georgie climbed onto a stool beside Nightshade.

“Are you one of Billy’s friends?”

“Yes.”

“What's your name?”

“Nightshade. That's David.”

“What's your name, buddy?”

“Georgie.”

Georgie looked the way Nightshade imagined Bill would've as a kid. He was cute, but apparently had a problem talking to strangers. He was too damn friendly for his own good.

“I don't think you should be talking to strangers, sweetheart. Won't Bill be mad?”

“No! You're his friends!”

“You got me there. But you should really go to bed. David and I have to leave soon anyway.”

Georgie reluctantly went back to bed right before they finished their snack and left.

“Maybe don't bring that up to Bill.”

“Oh, definitely not. Don't bring it up in public at all. Derry’s curfew is at seven. It's ten, David.”

“For kids.”

“I'm sixteen, David. And you aren't even eighteen yet.”

“I forget your age because you’re in my grade. You  _ just _ turned sixteen.”

“Yes, I did.”

“There's no need to get an attitude,” David teased.

“Nonsense. I always have an attitude.”

“I've noticed.”

They continued walking, the even jingling from David’s clothes and the click of Nightshade’s heels were the only sounds on the street. The night was a bit chilly and smelled of rain. It would take a few hours before it actually rained, but the scent was in the air.

A car was heard revving down at the other end of the street, but was fast approaching.

That could only be one group.

“Come on, let’s get back to my house. I don't feel like starting any fights tonight. I'm tired,” Nightshade told David. He glanced back over his shoulder and saw headlights. Metal blared over the stereo and the car screeched to a halt beside them. The neighborhood’s limit was fifteen. They were easily going 40.

“Curfew’s at seven,” David said, lighting the cigarette he kept behind his ear. “You boys should be at home. The sheriff’s son isn't setting a great example and should be the most likely to follow the rules.”

He was so nonchalant about the situation. Nightshade stood slightly behind him, but only from the way they had been walking. David exhaled the smoke up towards the sky.

“Take your shitbag friends home, Bowers.”

“Damn it,” Nightshade muttered as the car’s engine stopped and the four boys exited the vehicle.

“You got something to say, David?” Henry asked, getting too close for comfort.

“He may not, but I do. You're a sexist piece of shit and I hope you fall off a bridge.”

Henry turned away from David and walked up to Nightshade.

“That  _ really _ what you think, Waters?”

“Yeah.”

Nightshade stood calmly and kept her voice even. She wasn't afraid of him. She wasn't afraid of any of these fuckers. She just wanted to get home.

“Don't think you were saying that a few months ago.”

“Maybe not, but I can learn shit.” She took a step back. “Also, personal space is an awesome thing and I think you should learn about it.”

David flicked the butt of his cigarette into the storm drain at his feet and turned slightly to make sure Nightshade didn't get herself killed. She had an incredibly bad habit of starting fights with people who were much bigger than her. Something down in the drain hissed as the cigarette landed. That wasn't the same hiss that a cigarette would make if the embers got wet, though. It was as though someone had been burned. 

Most of these fights were with Henry Bowers and his gang of delinquents.

“Nightshade,” David warned.

“Next time, your  _ boyfriend _ won't be here to save your ass, Waters.”

“Good, because I don't need him to.”

Nightshade backed up a few steps and punched Henry in the jaw.

She felt a slight sting and shook her hand before shoving him off the curb and into one of his friends.

“You crazy bitch!”

“You weren't saying that a few months ago, Bowers.”

Nightshade felt her head snap backwards before falling over and hitting her head on the pavement. There was a sting in her nose, but she hadn't heard a crunch, so it wasn’t broken.

“Jesus Christ!” she moaned. She felt a wave of nausea hit and got up suddenly, throwing up into the sewer grate.

The sound of a switchblade being unsheathed was heard before Patrick started crouching to Nightshade’s level.

“Not cool, man,” David growled, punching Patrick square in the teeth.

The others backed off and dragged Patrick and Henry back into the car.

“You're a fucking coward for someone with a god complex, Hockstetter!” Nightshade shouted. She was sitting on the curb before David hoisted her up.

“What's your name?”

“Nightshade Waters.”

“What do your parents do?”

“They're bee farmers.”

“Who am I?”

“You're David. My boyfriend.”

“You're fine.”

She would need to see a doctor later, but if she could remember all of those things, she was  _ probably  _ fine.

“Let's get you home. The guys are probably still there.”

Nightshade linked her arm with David’s and leaned against his shoulder as they walked.

“Y’know, I could've handled that by myself. I just needed to get back on my feet.”

“He was less than a foot away from stabbing you.”

“I have quick reflexes.”

Down the street, something emerged from the sewer grate where they had fought the Bowers gang. That was odd. Red balloons don't come from sewers. On it was slightly distorted text.

_ I heart Santa Carla _


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last day of school before everything goes to hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Nightshade, David, Paul and Dwayne are rising seniors. Nightshade skipped a grade.  
> Marko and the Bowers shitheads are the year below them (rising juniors)  
> And the Losers are rising sophomores

Ah, the last day of junior year. It was weird being a senior and not even being seventeen yet. Well, it would be if she aged normally, but that wasn’t the point.

Nightshade was emptying out the few things she kept in her locker. Half of them were old assignments she was going to throw away. They were useless. Her sketchbook would stay, though. It had assignments in it, but they were for art. A class she actually enjoyed.

Five freshman gathered around her.

“Two of you are missing. Where are Eddie and Stan?”

“They got shoved in lockers,” Mike told Nightshade.

“Oh my god! Where?”

“In their own lockers.”

Nightshade slammed her empty locker shut and sprinted down the hall to see Henry Bowers and his friends gathered around the lockers.

“Right on time, losers. Mommy just arrived to save your asses.”

Nightshade shoved Victor and Patrick out of her way before knocking on Eddie’s locker.

“Eddie, are you still breathing?”

Eddie could only manage to lightly tap the door and his breathing had gone ragged.

“Richie, get him out,” Nightshade ordered. Richie was the only other one who knew Eddie’s combination.

Nightshade, knowing Stan’s combination, unlocked the door and let him out before slamming it shut again. Eddie tumbled out a second later and fumbled for his inhaler. Nightshade had her arms around Eddie to keep him upright. 

“I will slaughter you where you stand if you pull shit like this ever again, Bowers!”

“It wasn't me. I just watched. Patrick did it.”

“Well, the same goes for Hockstetter, then. In fact, I wouldn't hesitate to kill  _ any _ of you, if the opportunity was presented to me.”

Dwayne passed by and grabbed Nightshade around the waist before dragging her away. The Losers, as people called them, all following closely behind. 

“You  _ have  _ to stop pulling shit like that,” Dwayne told her, not even putting Nightshade down.

“I can't just  _ stop.  _ These children need me to defend them.”

“No, I meant threatening them.”

“If murder wasn't illegal, I would've killed those fuckers a long time ago.”

“I think you should let her do it, Dwayne,” Richie piped up from behind.

“Then who would save you guys from them?”

They all stayed silent. Dwayne put Nightshade down as soon as they left the building. David, Paul and Marko were waiting on the steps of Derry High School for their friends. The courtyard was pretty empty since they had taken longer to free Eddie and Stan from their prisons.

“Babe, did you get in another fight?” David asked, wrapping an arm around Nightshade’s shoulders.

“How could you tell?”

David raised an eyebrow. Everyone knew when Nightshade got in a fight. She would get slightly flushed and she would have an annoyed expression.

“I heard people mention you shoving Hockstetter.”

“I don't even have to fight them anymore. They're just afraid of me now.”

“They weren't acting like it!” Bev cried.

“They only pull the shit they do with you guys when I'm not around and because they know I don't want all of you to fear me. I'm capable of a lot of horrible things.”

“Like murder!”

“Let’s keep that under wraps, ok, hon?” Nightshade hissed to Eddie.

Everyone in the high school thought Nightshade was a psychopath who ran through the woods at night, attacking her ex’s friends and posting about it on social media.

It had been an accident for that picture to go viral. Nightshade had meant to send it to her group on Snapchat with David, Paul, Dwayne and Marko. She sent it to her story instead and Richie had screenshotted it, printed copies and taped them all over school.

The picture had been of Nightshade smiling, fangs fully extended, pinning a crying Patrick Hockstetter facedown in the dirt. The caption had read “VAMPIRES IN DERRY? IT’S MORE LIKELY THAN YOU THINK!”

People thought she was just wearing special effects makeup. It made the Bowers gang terrified of her, though. They would talk shit, behind her back or in front of her, and when she turned, they'd shrink back against the wall or run away.

Other students either called her “the baddest bitch in Derry” or “the craziest bitch in Derry.” She wore both proudly. The Bowers gang called her “crazy bitch.” The Losers called her “mom” or “Nightshade.” Every title had a story behind it.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A flashback for how Nightshade befriended all of the Losers. This does reference her past relationship when she's talking to Bev.

_ “You can only wear clothes that are yours tomorrow,” Marko told Nightshade. The only clothes she wore belonged to other people. _

_ “Yeah, that may not be possible. I have very few clothes that are actually mine.” _

_ Well, she had made it work. More or less. _

_ Nightshade only owned a t-shirt that read “I (heart) Derry” and the knee high boots she wore every day. _

_ Luckily, the shirt was a men’s medium and was more like a dress on her. _

_ She still got called on dress code as soon as a teacher saw her. And catcalled by Bowers and his friends. _

_ She knew one of the freshman would have pants for her to borrow. _

_ “Eddie! Can I borrow your pants?” _

_ “My what?!” _

_ “Your pants! I got dress coded and catcalled when I walked in. Gym shorts will do!” _

_ Richie was nearly on the floor laughing. _

_ “I only have these pants and my shorts wouldn't be long enough.” _

Damn.

_ Nightshade examined all of the kids by Eddie. She blanked on a name, but tried her best. She could only remember his favorite band. How could she forget his name? He was friends with Beverly and the rest of them, but Nightshade had forgotten his name. _

_ “New kid on the block!” _

_ Ben froze and turned stiffly. He had heard rumors about Nightshade. That she was a psychopath and would kill anyone who wronged her. She was named after a poisonous plant, so these rumors seemed fitting. Beverly and Bill had told him that Nightshade was really nice, just misunderstood. _

_ “Do you have pants I could wear?” _

_ “Pants?” _

_ “Yeah. I got dress coded and we seem to be similar heights. When I'm barefoot, of course.” _

_ She seemed pretty nice. She smiled at Ben and just needed help avoiding trouble. The rumors probably weren't true. He’d seen her shove Henry Bowers a few times, but Ben knew that Bowers deserved it. _

_ “I have some jeans you could wear. They're a bit long, so you might need to cuff them.” _

_ “Thanks! What's your name, by the way?” _

_ “Ben.” _

_ “I'm Nightshade. Thanks for the pants, Ben!” _

_ Nightshade slipped into the bathroom and saw Bev standing on a ledge to smoke the way Nightshade taught her. _

_ “What's with the outfit?” Bev asked, throwing the cigarette out the window. _

_ “Dare from Marko. I'm borrowing Ben’s jeans.” _

_ “Dress code?” _

_ “You bet.” _

_ Nightshade found Ben during gym class. _

_ “Thanks, new kid on the block. Let me know if you want a ride home.” _

 

_ *** _

 

_ It was still early in the school year. However, the biology teacher still wanted Nightshade to tutor her students and help during class. Nightshade had passed biology with flying colors and moved up to advanced placement for her sophomore year. Which she also aced. She was taking two science classes to stay on track and aiding for biology. _

_ The freshman this year were better than last year’s and a hell of a lot nicer. _

_ Two students in particular kept approaching Nightshade for help. Richie was a loudmouth who often tried starting fights with Henry and his gang. He made a lot of sex jokes and was unabashed and unashamed. _

_ Bill, on the other hand, was a sweet kid who cared for his younger brother. He was a target of bullying due to a stutter and other unknown reasons. The Bowers gang called him and his friends “flamers,” along with other, more vulgar slurs and insults. Bill would often need help because Richie kept distracting him while he was trying to listen during class. Nightshade would have to reteach him most of the class. He caught on quickly, though. He just needed someone to go over the lesson with him so he could connect the points he actually caught and put in his notes _

_ Nightshade would get the two boys together to go over lessons during study hall or after school when they needed it. She and Bill had study hall right after lunch, so Nightshade could go over material with him. It also helped keep any bullies away from Bill since Nightshade was there. They weren’t afraid of her, but they knew she wouldn’t back down from a fight. _

_ “Wish I had a tutor like yours, Denbrough. What else does she do for you?” _

_ “Shut up, Bowers!” Bill shouted. _

_ “Bill, don’t engage!” Nightshade hissed, going back to their work. _

_ They tried to lie low for the rest of the period, which wasn’t easy when Henry decided to sit at their table, even after the advisor told him to move multiple times. That had been a rough hour. _

_ “Bill, you can study with Richie and me after school, too,” Nightshade offered. “We normally meet outside if the weather is nice enough.” _

_ Bill declined her offer, saying he had to get Georgie from school and go home. His parents were out of town. _

_ Nightshade was looking over a diagram of the cardiovascular system with Richie, trying to see where he went wrong. _

_ “Switch those terms,” Nightshade told him, pointing at three different sections of the heart. He had confused “aorta” and “atrium,” resulting in having a right and left aorta and one atrium. _

_ They were sitting at a picnic table outside the building to go over his work. Nightshade had sunglasses covering her eyes and her umbrella propped up to protect herself from the harsh sunlight. _

_ She hadn't hunted in a few days and was starting to get a headache. Luckily, Richie was picking up on the material after Nightshade covered it. _

_ “Do you need a ride home?” _

_ “I have my bike. I'll be fine.” _

_ “Alright. I'll drive close by to keep an eye on you, though.” _

_ It was a good thing she did, too, because he talked some shit and almost got his ass beaten. _

 

_ *** _

 

_ Beverly Marsh looked up to Nightshade. She wasn't afraid of anything or anyone. Bev had seen her have to be dragged away from fights when Nightshade tried taking on Henry and his ilk by herself. _

_ She’d heard rumors about Nightshade that were similar to the ones people told about her, too. There was some insane rumor about Nightshade dating Henry Bowers for a while and him “lending” her to his friends. Bev, another victim of this type of gossip, didn't believe it. Nightshade was in a really steady relationship with David, one of the boys who constantly picked her up and carried her away from fights. Bev saw all of them hanging out in town almost every night. Once, she swore they went into the woods and would emerge half an hour later, covered in blood and looking disheveled. That one time she had seen them from her window, it had nearly been three in the morning, so Bev blamed it on being tired and went to bed. _

_ Nightshade was in Bev’s gym class and was a pretty impressive athlete. She was fast and pretty strong. She had once allowed one of the freshman— Eddie, Bev thought he was— sit on her back while she did push-ups. Eddie was actually terrified of Nightshade because she had clawlike nails and he had seen her get into a few fights before. Bev thought she was really cool. _

_ Bev was hiding in a bathroom stall, lit cigarette between her fingers. The door slammed open. _

Shit! Shit! Shit!

_ “If you want to not get caught, stand on the ledge next to the window and open it.” _

_ It was Nightshade and she was… crying? _

_ “Are you alright?” _

_ “Yeah, I'm fine.” _

_ Nightshade used the sweatshirt she was wearing to rub her eyes and leaned against the aforementioned ledge. _

_ Bev opened the stall and stood up on the ledge. _

_ She  _ had  _ been crying. _

_ “What's up?” Bev asked, taking a long drag off her cigarette. _

_ “Bowers is up to his usual bullshit and targeted me.” _

_ “Isn't he afraid of you?” _

_ “A little bit. He said I was a whore and my friends just had to ask nicely for me to screw them. He didn't ask nicely all the time. He forced me into it and so did a few of his shitbag friends.” Nightshade inhaled and leaned back against the wall. “Can I have one?” _

_ Bev handed her a cigarette and lighter. Nightshade took them and lit up, joining Bev on top of the ledge. _

_ So the rumors were partially true. Nobody seemed to see Nightshade’s side, though. It sounded like those boys abused her and bragged about it, twisting the words to make Nightshade into some sort of slut. _

_ “So why are  _ you  _ in here?” Nightshade asked Bev. _

_ “Don't have a lot of friends. People think I'm a slut, too.” _

_ Nightshade puffed out some air and took another drag off her cigarette, holding the smoke in her mouth before blowing out an impressive column. _

_ “I smelled smoke,” a teacher said in the hall. Both girls extinguished the cigarettes and flicked them out the window. Nightshade slammed it shut and Bev jumped off the ledge. It turns out there was something burning in the faculty lounge. _

_ Nightshade was still holding some smoke in her mouth. It burned in an unpleasant way after a while. They both left the bathroom. The teacher was already past them and they turned to head to the outside courtyard where people were eating lunch. _

_ “You can blow it out, you know.” _

_ “Wow, didn't know two sluts would hang out together. Don't you see Marsh as a threat, Nightshade?” _

_ Nightshade blew the smoke out. _

_ “Go fucking choke, Bowers!” _

_ Nightshade had Bev follow her to the table where the boys were sitting. _

_ “I made a friend,” Nightshade told them, sitting next to David. Bev sat on the edge of the bench next to Nightshade.  _

_ “And she gave you a cigarette,” David commented, wrapping an arm around Nightshade and kissing the underside of her jaw. _

_ “I taught her how to smoke without getting caught.” _

_ “I'm David,” he told Bev, giving a half wave. The rest of the boys introduced themselves. She recognized Marko from their gym class, too. _

 

_ *** _

 

_ Meeting Eddie, Stan and Mike was different. _

_Eddie and Stan were friends with Bill and Richie, but didn't talk to Nightshade much. They were kind of afraid of her. She filed her nails into points and was starting fights all the time. Eddie swore he once saw her lick blood off her own hand after she clawed someone’s face. Something about her made Stan uneasy. He couldn't quite describe what it was. Oh, wait, it was the fact that she would fight people for any reason and he_ for sure _saw her lick blood off her own fingers after slashing Patrick Hockstetter’s face._

_ Nightshade was fucking insane and unsanitary. _

_ “She isn't that bad,” Bill insisted. _

_ “Dude, she clawed someone’s face open and then lapped up the blood like a fucking cat!” Eddie exclaimed. “Do you know how many diseases she probably has?!” _

_ “I heard she smokes in the bathroom during lunch and free periods,” Stan added. _

_ The whole reason Nightshade had attacked Hockstetter was to make him leave Mike alone. Mike was a gentle kid who liked history. He had tested up into the AP United States history class that Nightshade was in and just wanted to do his reading and go over his notes. _

_ Bowers and Hockstetter had started bothering Mike during lunch while Nightshade was on her way inside to get something from her locker. _

_ She had heard them first. Then she saw them around the corner. Mike had been trying to leave the building and those fuckers had camped out on the stairs to bother anyone who passed by. Nightshade was trying to get inside at the same time. _

_ “Leave him alone, Hockstetter. The kid just wants to eat and study in peace.” _

_ “That right, Nightshade?” _

_ “Yeah, now let him go and let me in.” _

_ They were relentless. Henry had Mike pinned facedown on the ground and was flipping through the poor kid’s journal for English, which was where Nightshade assumed he had been. Those journals got really personal sometimes. _

_ “Get off him, Henry!” _

_ Henry tossed the journal to Patrick, who started reading it out loud. _

_ Nightshade, acting impulsively, grabbed the book and scratched Patrick’s face. Four deep red gashes extended down his cheek and blood dripped down his face. _

_ Patrick started shouting at Nightshade, holding his face. Henry released Mike and Nightshade handed him his journal before he ran off. _

_ “Bye, assholes,” she muttered, forgetting what she originally needed and walking back to her table, index finger in her mouth to clean off the blood. _

_ Two freshman boys, they were friends with Richie and Bill, were watching in horror as she walked in their direction. _

_ “She's sucking blood off her fingers!” Eddie hissed. “Don't look at her!” _

_ “I'm trying not to, dude!” _

_ Nightshade was truly a scary sight at this moment. Her nails were always eerily long and sharpened into claws, which were painted some dark color. They looked red at the time. She always wore sunglasses, claiming her eyes were “sensitive to light” and carried around a black umbrella to shield herself from the sun. All of this was coupled with her licking blood from her nails and fingers after slashing someone’s face open. _

_ They were standing directly in her path. _

_ “Do you have any hand sanitizer?” _

_ Eddie stood frozen. Stan nudged him in the side. _

_ “Yeah, let me get it out,” Eddie mumbled, fumbling with his fanny pack. The contents scattered across the ground and Nightshade helped him pick everything up. Eddie handed her the small bottle and Nightshade started cleaning her hands. _

_ She noticed an inhaler in the pouch and recognized this kid immediately. He was the one who came to the office to take a variety of medications. Nightshade was in the nurse’s office for getting in another fight. He had walked in and had to take a pump off the thing for running there. _

_ “You're Eddie, right?” _

_ Eddie was still quiet. _

_ “Yes, he is,” Stan supplied. _

_ “I'm Nightshade. I have a question for both of you.” They stared expectantly. “Do either of you know how to use an epipen?” _

_ “I do!” Eddie exclaimed. _

_ “Good. I'm deathly allergic to bees and I have one in my pocket in case I get stung. If you happen to be in the area, I would appreciate it if you stabbed me in the leg.” _

_ They both ran off after Eddie agreed.  _

_ “I think I scared some freshman,” Nightshade told the guys, sitting down. _

_ “They'll come around,” Paul observed. “They're talking about you with their friends.” _

_ “Probably nothing good,” Nightshade muttered sulkily. _


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spooky shit's going down in Derry. The next chapter is going to have a flashback, but it won't be entirely flashback.  
> Enjoy this one for now!

The summer was boring so far. To be fair, it had only been a day, but that day was boring. The only thing Nightshade had done so far was go for a run in the woods. Her parents, despite requiring bee suits, never let her near the bees and hadn’t harvested any wax for her to use yet. The Derry Farmer’s Market was every Saturday morning and the Waters family had a booth where they sold products from the bee farm. Nightshade made candles and soap and her parents sold honey and related products. She was stocked up after the last two weekends where it had rained and nobody came out to the market.

Her run was something, though. Not enough to make the summer not boring, but it piqued her interest and she had told Marko about it when she got back into town and saw him reading in the park.

“Something isn’t right in the woods. I saw… something while I was running.”

Marko closed the book and placed it on the bench beside him. He had his umbrella propped up on the back of the bench. It was cloudy, but there was still enough light to cause damage to fragile vampire skin. 

“What was it, Nightshade?”

She glanced around, noticing some young kids gathering on the play equipment a few yards away.

“In my car. We can talk there.”

Nightshade drove a 1975 Volkswagen bus that had been painted red and white. The inside had blackout curtains to provide easy shelter for vampires and other creatures of the night during the day. And the bench seats were great for sleeping and driving her friends around. It still had California plates, so everyone knew that those rowdy kids would be wherever it was parked.

It was actually decorated inside. Everything in there was black, making an illusion of night, but she had somehow strung battery-operated faerie lights along the ceiling, allowing for some sort of light source. The top opened a bit and NIghtshade used that opening almost like a chimney, allowing cigarette and candle smoke out.

After Marko joined her in the back, they slid the door shut and Nightshade lit a candle, while Marko switched on the hanging lights.

“A red balloon.”

“What?”

“I saw a red balloon down by the river while I was running. It was near where the drain pipes open up.”

“Ok? What’s wrong with that?”

“It read ‘I heart Santa Carla.’ We are the only people in this town from California and we sure as hell don’t carry around balloons like that.”

Marko allowed this to process while Nightshade sent a text to their group thread.

_ Come to the park and find the bus. We need to talk. ~NW _

“I think it has something to do with that one girl in Bev’s grade who went missing during the school year. Betty Ripsom? Because I know for sure we didn’t do that. We don’t eat kids and we remember all of our kills after they happened. I tutored her in biology, so I would’ve recognized her.”

“Wasn’t she kidnapped in, like, March?” Marko asked.

“She went missing around that time. Not a trace of her was found. No fabric, no blood, nothing.”

There was a frantic knock on the bus door. Strange. It would’ve taken the other guys a little longer to get there than that.

Nightshade looked through a crack in the curtain and slid the door open, allowing the figure inside the bus.

“I saw something weird,” Stan gasped. He had sprinted across town, looking for Nightshade’s bus, knowing she would be in the area after her run.

“What did  _ you _ see?” Marko asked.

“That painting I hate. The woman in it was in my dad’s office at the synagogue.”

The painting was something Stan had shown Nightshade when she visited the synagogue with him one day. It was… unsettling, to say the least. She could understand why it scared Stan. Nightshade’s way of making him feel better was saying, “How does she properly play the flute if her face is so fucked up?”

Stan had laughed at the joke, but was still put off by the painting. Rightfully so, too. The thing was creepy as fuck.

“She left the painting?”

“Yeah. She was just waiting for me to come in.”

“We left Santa Carla to  _ avoid _ shit like this!”

“Did you see something?” Stan asked.

“It was weird. I saw a red Santa Carla balloon where the pipes drain out in the woods. I kept running because I didn't  _ want  _ to know why it was there.”

There was another series of knocks on the door. The rest of the guys climbed into the bus and sat on the benches and floor. Nightshade had Stan sitting beside her and she was holding him to help him calm down. The kid was in full panic mode.

David squeezed onto the bench with them.

“What happened?”

“Stan and I both saw some shit around the same time. Something isn't right here, David.”

“Well, we knew that when kids started going missing. What did Stan see?”

Stan explained the painting to David. He had only let Nightshade see it when they were all trying to see if she was afraid of something. David and the other boys had never seen it.

“So this woman with the messed up face came out of her painting and tried to attack you in your dad’s office?”

Stan nodded.

“And I saw a red balloon before I went in.”

Nightshade snapped her attention to Stan.

“I saw a red balloon, too. Out in the woods on my run. It was by the drainage pipes. Do you think these are connected?”

“They have to be. Red balloons in the woods and a synagogue aren't normal. Nightshade, when did you see yours?” Dwayne asked.

“Around ten.”

“Stan?”

“Ten-thirty.”

“Nightshade ignored the one she saw, but Stan went towards his. Whatever it was saw that Nightshade didn't give a shit and targeted someone else.”

_ Shit. _

Derry was just as fucked up as Santa Carla.

Nightshade drove Stan back home while the boys all sat in the back of the bus.

Paul was asleep on one of the benches and David had figured out a way to simulate a proper vamp sleeping position in the car and was also resting. Marko was still reading. Dwayne and Nightshade were in the front, looking for their other friends.

Nightshade’s phone vibrated in the cup holder.

“Can you check that?”

“It's a picture of the Denbroughs’ welcome mat from… ‘Dolla Dolla Bill.’ Really, Nightshade?”

“He turned it back around! I know where we can go!”

In all honesty, Nightshade just wanted to visit Georgie. With finals, she hadn't had much time to visit him after school.

Georgie reminded Nightshade and the boys of Laddie back in Santa Carla. The Emersons and Star had kept Laddie with them, saying it was “too dangerous” for him to stay with Max and the boys. Michael had been their friend but he tried killing them. He stabbed David with a fucking taxidermy deer head. The others had to pull David off of it and find refuge in Max’s house until they all decided moving would be best. Santa Carla had become too dangerous for them. Nightshade’s parents agreed to moving, too. That's how they all ended up in Derry together.

Nightshade parked by the curb and shut off the car.

“Do you want me to wake them up?” Marko asked, poking his head between the two front seats.

“Go for it.”   
There was some rustling from the back of the van and a loud bang, signalling that David lost his balance when getting out of his “optimal sleep position” because the space was too small.

“Babe, you alright?”

A loud growl of annoyance was his only reply.

“We told you that was a bad idea,” Paul added.

The driveway was empty and, since the garage was used for handicrafts, Nightshade knew Bill’s parents weren’t home. Bill would only let them waltz in if his parents weren’t around because it was awkward for everyone.

Nightshade opened the door and stepped over the threshold, immediately having the wind knocked from her lungs by Georgie.

“Hi, sweetheart! Where’s Bill?”

“He’s sick. He wanted you to come over and help him.”

Well, that wasn’t safe. Georgie was too young to stay home with his sick older brother. Nightshade walked upstairs, David following close behind while the boys stayed down with Georgie.

Nightshade knocked on the doorframe of Bill’s room and waited for his invitation before entering.

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

Bill coughed in response.

“Seems about right.”

Nightshade pressed the back of her hand to Bill’s forehead. No fever. That was good.

“M-m-mom went to get medi-” Bill started having a fit of coughing and Nightshade rubbed his back. David handed Bill the glass of water from the nightstand.

“Get some sleep, honey,” Nightshade told Bill.

In the morning, the Snapchat group was blowing up. A picture of Georgie dressed for the rain that was pouring down outside. He was holding a boat Bill made that read “S.S. Georgie” on the side.

_ She’s all ready, captain _

Everyone responded cheering for Georgie and his boat.

Bill was a good brother. Nobody could deny it.

Something was horribly wrong. Nightshade heard a scream across town. She and Dwayne exchanged a look.

Their fears were confirmed in the morning when they saw it.

MISSING: GEORGE “GEORGIE” DENBROUGH


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A warning: I already have this fic tagged, but I do mention rape and abuse in this chapter. I decided to make a chapter explaining Nightshade's past relationship. I do not, however, go into detail. It is mostly just referenced/implied.
> 
> I also made up the vamp lore because it seemed like something I could do.

“Hey, get fucked, Bowers!” Richie shouted, using both hands to put up his middle fingers. Eddie and Nightshade were trying to drag him away from starting another fight. Taking him back home bloodied and battered wouldn’t win over his parents. They liked NIghtshade, but thought she wasn’t the best behaved of the bunch. Richie causing a fight would get Eddie hurt and Eddie’s mom would blame Nightshade. Ms. Kaspbrak  _ hated  _ Nightshade. First on her record was the way she dressed. Nightshade had had two ways of dressing while in Derry. She usually wore her friends’ clothes. The clothes of multiple strange boys? Whore. Short skirts and boots?  _ Whore.  _ Full makeup and sharply manicured nails? Might as well be working the street corner.

Ms. Kaspbrak wanted nothing to do with Nightshade and wanted to keep Eddie as far from her as possible. Besides, she heard about how this Californian girl used to tramp around with Henry Bowers and his friends before going to David. It was bad enough Eddie spent time with Beverly Marsh, but Beverly Marsh  _ and  _ Nightshade Waters? Absolutely not. Those girls had more rumors floating around them than anyone could count.

Eddie and Nightshade successfully dragged Richie into the bus before Eddie climbed into the front seat and they could drive off. Just one issue.

“Bowers, if you don’t move your ass, I will run you over!” Nightshade shouted out the window. He didn't move. Neither did his friends. 

“Oh, for the love of  _ god! _ ”

If this wasn’t going to work, Nightshade had a different idea. She stuck her head out the window again. It was starting to get dark, so baring fangs was the best way to get her point across. Nightshade extended the long fangs and hissed.

“Christ!”

And off they went. She pulled herself back into the car.

“Ready to go?”

“Sometimes, I’m afraid of you when you do that,” Eddie told her as Nightshade pulled out of the alleyway.

“Everyone is. Unless you’re a vampire, it will always catch you off guard. At least you’ve never seen me feed.”

“Does it hurt when you do it? I mean, your face changes completely.”

“No. It used to hurt like hell, but I’m so used to it now that it doesn’t cause me pain anymore. The feeling has dulled.”

“How long have you been like this?”

“Two years. I was turned when I was fifteen, which really just gave me eternal life. With the boys and me, we will age normally until hitting a certain age. After that, we will stay at that age and just live forever. Unless, of course, someone kills us.”

“What age is the stopping point?” Richie asked from the back.

“Well, Max stopped aging in his fifties, but he was turned later in life. We’ll probably stop around our thirties, is my best guess. Probably ask David or the others, though. They know a lot more on the topic than I do.”

“So, if David turned you, why weren’t you dating him when you got here?”

“Because we were stupid sophomores who didn’t act on our feelings.”

That was very true. Nightshade was also a year younger than David, so it was weird at the time. It didn’t seem so weird now, but fifteen and sixteen seem really far apart. Sixteen and seventeen seem normal for some reason, though. Besides, they both had  _ other  _ problems to deal with.

 

***

 

_ “Ms. Waters, I reviewed your grades from Santa Carla and have noticed you are very skilled in the sciences,” Mr. Solano said. He taught biology, AP and regular, and anatomy/physiology at Derry High School. Nightshade was his top student in AP biology. “You are excelling in this class as well. I have four students in my fourth period biology class who are in need of tutoring. It would be after school Monday, Wednesday and Friday until 4:15. They aren’t the best behaved, but I think a peer would be helpful to them.” _

_ There were so many other students in AP bio who could do this. Why Nightshade? _

_ “Mr. Solano, why do you want  _ me _ to do it?” _

_ “I've found that students seem to be intimidated by you and these boys could use it.” _

Ouch.

_ Nightshade ultimately agreed and Solano gave her the materials from class that day. _

_ “You start this afternoon. My classroom.” _

Great _. _

_ These boys were beyond Nightshade’s control. All four of them would get off track while Nightshade was explaining something or, ever worse, they’d start fighting. Two of them, Patrick and Henry, were typically the ones fighting. Nightshade had to resort to separating all of them in order to keep them on track and off each other’s throats. They interrupted her, made crude comments and were pains in the ass, too. _

_ “For the love of god, shut up!” Nightshade shouted. _

_ They were startled and stopped talking for once. Separating them hadn’t worked. _

_ “Listen to me and you can get out of here. I'm not here to babysit you. I'm here to make sure you don't fuck up this class. So, shut the fuck up and pay attention.” _

_ In a weird way, they grew on her after a few weeks. But that's expected when you spend an hour and a half with people three times a week. She wanted to see them succeed in class. Vic knew what he was doing, but seemed to be distracted by the others during class. He caught on quickly, but still needed help. The others had no fucking clue about what was happening. Nightshade would typically have to keep Henry after the time to do one on one work with him. He was responsive, but not enough. He was too busy flirting with Nightshade to do his work. _

_ “Pay attention to my words, not my face. Write this down.” _

_ And then Henry asked Nightshade on a date. _

The hell?!

_ She agreed. His idea of a date was taking her out into the woods with his friends, smoking and getting drunk. Nightshade felt weird about being there. Sure, she was on a date with Henry, but something was wrong about it. _

_ Oh, maybe the fact that he pinned Nightshade to the side of Belch’s car and kissed her like he would die without human contact. The way his friends cheered while in their stupor made her uneasy. _

_ Everything they did escalated over a month. Henry took Nightshade to his house only when his dad was working late. _

_ “D’you wanna, I dunno, have sex or somethin’?” _

_ That was weird. Unexpected, too. They'd made plenty of jokes about sex and had gotten very close to it, but actually doing it? Never a topic. _

_ “Ok. Sure.” _

_ That resulted in Nightshade awkwardly meeting Henry’s dad the next morning. _

_ At school, Henry had told his friends all about the encounter. Every last detail. _

_ David and the boys overheard and were ready to kill Bowers. Having sex was one thing. Telling everyone about it was another. Nightshade was embarrassed and the boys could tell. _

_ “Just don’t say anything, alright?” _

_ “I’m not about to stand by and watch while he tells people private things about you!” Dwayne countered. _

_ And then came the lewd comments. This continued for a week and a half until Henry made an offer.  _

_ “Wish I had a girl who did that for me.” _

_ “Take her for the night,” Henry said. _

_ “You have to be joking!” Nightshade exclaimed. _

_ They had been sitting around in Patrick’s basement playing poker and drinking whatever was in the small fridge. _

_ “Here?” Belch asked. _

_ Nightshade felt something run cold within her. She checked the label on her bottle. No alcohol. She hadn’t left it unattended either, so there couldn’t be drugs in it. Why was she hearing things, then? _

_ “Just don't do it on my bed,” Patrick muttered. He was pissy that Henry offered the opportunity to Belch instead of him.  _

_ “Henry, what the hell?” _

_ “It won't be bad, Nightshade. Just do it.” _

_ “I don't want to!” _

_ Henry looked up from the cards in his hands. _

_ “What?” His teeth were clenched and there was something in his eyes that made Nightshade sense that he wasn't kidding. _

_ All she felt was betrayal as she walked back down to the basement afterward. Patrick and Vic were still down there. The game had been put on pause for Henry to make a run for supplies and Vic was shuffling cards while Patrick played with his lighter. Belch had left after saying that Nightshade “cried too much.” _

_ “Where the hell is Henry?” _

_ Her voice was shaking and she felt dirty. She knew Henry would still give her hell over what had happened. It may have been his idea, but he still didn’t want Nightshade even looking at the other guys. _

_ “He went out to get some more cigarettes.” _

_ Patrick wasn't paying attention. Vic, however, jumped up and inspected Nightshade. _

_ “You should go home.” _

_ Nightshade broke down and Vic awkwardly held her. Emotions weren't commonplace with this group. They weren’t friends, but Nightshade got along better with Vic than the others. He was still a dickhead, but he actually made an effort with Nightshade. He was the only one who actually gave a damn that she was just assaulted. Then again, he hadn’t stopped it from happening. _

_ Vic walked Nightshade home before Henry got back. _

_ Henry was furious when he saw her again at school. _

_ “I never told you that you could leave!” _

_ “I am not your property, Henry!” _

_ The boys had gone out of town with Max for the weekend to go on some hunt. Nightshade tried contacting Vic. He didn't pick up. She wasn't fond of Patrick, but she knew he wouldn't hesitate to fuck Henry up if the opportunity was there. He just wanted to fight. _

_ “Do you ever get that feeling that you've stopped existing?” Nightshade asked, lying on the floor of the Hockstetters’ living room. Patrick was lying on the floor with his head by her feet. _

_ “Sweetheart, that is the exact opposite of how I always feel,” Patrick stated, taking a drag off his cigarette. “I'm the only real one in this world. Everyone else is fake.” _

_ Ok, that's weird. _

_ “Everyone?” _

_ “Yep.” _

_ “That's so fuckin’ weird.” _

_ “You're always hangin’ on Henry. Where the hell is he? Not that I'm complaining. I'd love alone time with you.” _

_ “We fought. I told him he can't just let Belch borrow me like a library book. I’m only here to stay away from him. You’re not special, Patrick.” _

_ “Don't you go to Vic when you get all emotional and shit? Or those other guys who you’re always with?” _

_ “Vic didn't answer the phone and the guys are out of town. You were a last resort.” _

_ They both seemed so relaxed. Nightshade was on edge, though. Patrick was worse than Henry. She was right to be so nervous. When they were all together again, Henry let Patrick do as he pleased and then had his way right after.  _

_ Vic walked her home the next morning. Nightshade felt sick. With herself, with Henry, with Patrick, with Belch.  _

_ She no longer stopped to talk to Henry in the hall. She told Mr. Solano that she would no longer be able to tutor them. The first ten minutes of lunch were spent talking to her friends again, not letting Henry pin her to the lockers and kiss her the way he did that first time they went out together. When Henry tried to kiss her in the hall, Nightshade pulled away from him. She didn't want him anywhere near her. He grabbed a fistful of her hair and slammed her into the closest locker. _

_ “You belong to me, got it?” _

_ “I'm done, Henry!” Nightshade tried to push him away. When that didn’t work, she landed a hard blow to his ankle with the heel of her boot. He released his hold on her hair, but still had her cornered. “I'm not your fucking property! I am not to be rented out like some sort of machine! I don't want you coming near me again!” _

_ David beat the shit out of Henry later after Nightshade told him everything that had happened. Paul, Marko and Dwayne did the same to Hockstetter and Huggins when they tracked them down. When they saw David walking over, they had scattered. _

 

_ *** _

 

Only Bev and the boys knew what happened. The others knew she had dated Bowers, but they never asked why they broke up. Everyone assumed it was just because he was a shitty person.

Now, Eddie and Richie knew. Eddie had had his suspicions in the past when Nightshade had said something vague under her breath.

“Were you afraid of them?”

“At the time, I was. I've stopped fearing them, though. I know that I am the one to be feared and the one with more power.”


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some spooky shit's going down in Derry, Maine! Also, we get to see a bit of Nightshade's fear (oops).  
> (I figured a spooky chapter would be great for Halloween)

Bill wasn’t sick anymore. His first order of business was to find Georgie, though. He had gone through all of the possible places Georgie could’ve ended up being. He had checked the woods and found nothing. Not a trace of him.

Nightshade was sitting in his garage with Mike while they went through the possibilities. Mike knew enough about Derry’s history to pinpoint where Georgie could’ve ended up and Nightshade knew the woods and provided transport.

“The B-b-barrens.”

“Down where the sewer opens up into the river?” NIghtshade asked. She ran through there all the time. That’s where she saw the balloon a week ago.

“We should get the others on our way out. They could help us cover a larger area,” Mike suggested.

“The bus would fit all of us and I could get the boys and maybe even Max to come, too.”

“Bring the boys, not Max.”

Max was bound to bring the group down. Nightshade may have been a maternal figure, but she was just as impulsive as the others. Max would’ve told them what they were doing was unsafe and they should go home. Max was kind of a kill joy.

“I’ll text the group so we can all meet downtown and head out.”

The group, lovingly titled “The Loser Boys Club,” was active at all hours. Richie was usually the one keeping it alive with memes.

_ Meet us downtown by the library. We’ll explain there. ~NW _

Nightshade thought not everyone would be able to come, but they did not disappoint.

Nightshade, Mike and Bill rolled up to the curb ten minutes later and opened the door for the others to get in. Mike was riding shotgun and the others all had to pile into the back. David was in his “optimal sleep position” again.

“One of you will need to help him down when we get there. Last time, he fell and hit his head,” Nightshade called back. Dwayne, Paul and Marko, had all done the same to make more room for the others.

“Ok, we can't get pulled over,” Eddie told Nightshade. “We have too many people in here.”

“With the boys, yes. The rest of you legally fit. However, I am a good driver and won't be pulled over.”

The municipal lot where Nightshade always parked was empty when they arrived.

“Somebody help the boys down. They'll get hurt if they don't have someone. The rest of you should get out.”

Marko fell trying to get down, but the others were fine this time around.

It was still early in the day, not even being noon yet.

“Where are we going?”

“The Barrens. To find Georgie.”

Nightshade was under her umbrella, sharing with Ben since it was so bright outside. Ben got sunburn easily and hadn't reapplied sunscreen recently so Nightshade was helping him out.

They all stayed close, knowing whatever had tried getting Stan and Nightshade lurked in this area. It was probably the same thing that got Georgie and all those other kids.

Every few weeks, a new missing poster was put up. The last was forgotten in the wake of a new tragedy. Georgie’s had already been covered and he had only been missing two weeks.

This was starting to be like the boardwalk in Santa Carla. There was a board at the entrance plastered in missing flyers. It was like every public space in Derry. Posts, walls, everything had a missing poster on it. Some had blown off of their mounts and into the woods. Bev picked one up and looked it over. It was old. At least four months. The printing was faded and it was worn. She couldn't even make out the face in the picture.

Any missing posters for adults were probably from Nightshade and the boys. They worked to be like vigilantes in Derry. A lot of adults in the town were shitty, so they fed on them. They had attacked one of the cops who had dismissed Nightshade’s case against Henry after he told her it was her own fault. Their posters were never taken down. The boys and Nightshade never left a trace. Every spot of blood was cleaned from their clothes and they had never left a corpse behind. They were meticulous killers.

Every case went cold after a few months. The police stopped investigating. When Nightshade went to a different cop to file a case, Sheriff Bowers intercepted it and told her he had “taken care of it.” She knew how he was with Henry, so she assumed he had beaten his son or dismissed it. The Bowers men weren’t famous for their proper treatment of women.

The Barrens were empty for the time being. After people started going missing, nobody wanted to go into the woods alone. It was too dangerous. Especially for kids and teenagers. Derry had made a strict curfew for anyone under the age of eighteen after multiple kids went missing in a week. Everyone had to be in by seven in the evening. Which wasn’t good for vampires. They would sneak out every time they needed to feed and hope a cop didn’t catch them.

Bill led them down to the river, where sewer pipes let out from Derry. Pretty disgusting, if one thinks about it. This was where he thought Georgie had ended up. The kid certainly was small enough to have slipped down through a grate and it was raining hard enough. The town had been under flash flood warning all day and Nightshade’s parents had to put tarps over the bee colonies. Luckily, the Waters family lived on top of a hill, so the rainwater washed down the hill and wouldn’t drown the bees.

“I won’t go in there,” Eddie stated. “That’s grey water.”

“I'll stand out here with Eddie,” Marko offered. Paul was staying out, too. They would stand guard. If any unsavory characters came over, they wouldn't try to fuck with Eddie while those two were around. Richie was already fucking around with the trash that hadn't drained yet. 

“Good luck hanging out with two blood suckers,” Richie teased. Marko flipped him off in response. 

“Hey, they protect your ass, so I wouldn't be talking shit,” Nightshade warned.

There was a loud splash a few feet behind her.

“Fuck!”

Dwayne had slipped on something and fell in the sludge.

“You just fell in millions of gallons of Derry pee and the rest of you are splashing around in it,” Eddie scolded from the entrance.

Dwayne picked up what caused him to slip. Bill shone his dim flashlight on it, but David and Nightshade saw it first. A hand. A severed one. They blocked it from others seeing it and Nightshade examined it.

“That's from us,” David said. “The cop who dismissed Nightshade’s case.”

Dwayne nodded after looking closely. The tearing was similar to their fangs.

“Drop it and go wash off in the river. You're disgusting,” Nightshade told Dwayne. “Take Ben with you, the poor kid looks sick.”

They went back to searching as Dwayne and Ben left.

“Fuckin’ gross, dude,” Paul commented, moving out of the way.

“I found s-s-s-something,” Bill shouted. The others gathered around him. He picked up an old sneaker.

“Is it-?” Richie asked.

“No. Georgie wore galoshes.”

They checked the inside and saw a name.

_ Ripsom _

They all exchanged the same look. Betty Ripsom was either hopping around with one shoe, as Richie had joked, or she was dead.

“I'm going in deeper,” Nightshade told Bill.

If she transformed, she'd be able to see well.

She continued walking, slowly losing sight of the opening.

“Nightshade…”

That was a familiar voice.

“Nightshade, I have something for you.”

“Bev?”

That couldn't be possible. Beverly was out by the opening with Eddie.

“Nightshade, I trusted you!”

Bev was screaming now. Nightshade took a step back and saw something coming towards her from the distance. A red balloon?

_ Oh, shit! _

The balloon popped when Nightshade grabbed it and revealed Bev, stake in hand, ready to strike.

“What the fuck?!”

Nightshade backed up. “Beverly” tried stabbing her, narrowly missing and grazing Nightshade’s shoulder. It burned and Nightshade heard a telltale sizzle. Holy water.

“You aren't real!”

David looked in Nightshade’s direction, hearing the echo of her shouts.

The fake Bev disappeared and a new figure stood a few hundred yards back. A… clown?

_ Fuck _ .

Nightshade turned and sprinted back to the others, hearing her name being called from two directions.

“What the hell happened to you?” David asked. The others were rinsing off in the river. David had stayed behind for when Nightshade came back.

“David, I think I'm going crazy.”

“Babe, you aren't going crazy.”

“Then why did I see Beverly back there and why did she try to stab me?!” Nightshade’s voice broke and she started crying. “Why did a stake graze my arm and burn like hell?”

David grabbed her shoulders and held her against his chest.

“Let me see.”

Nightshade showed him her arm.

“There's a gash and a burn. You aren't crazy. Someone or some _ thing _ attacked you.”

They left the pipe and Nightshade grabbed her umbrella from one of the rocks, going to stand ankle deep in water.

Something was off.

“Where the hell is Ben?” Bev asked, also noticing. She also noticed that Nightshade was visibly shaken. They were going to talk later. After Ben was found.


	7. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some more shit is going down. Also, I hint at book Patrick from what I've read in my research.  
> We're in movie events now. But, changed to fit the setting/timeline I created.  
> Also here's the ultimate King style Easter egg: I intentionally made this chapter exactly 1408 words

“Dwayne and I will look around up in the woods. The rest of you, look around down here,” David instructed.

He couldn’t have gone far. Then again, the woods were huge and he could’ve seen something that drew him in or scared him away. Either way, this was bad.

“How the fuck do you lose an entire kid?” Marko asked Nightshade as Dwayne and David disappeared up the hill.

“I have never lost track of a kid, so I don’t fuckin’ know.”

“Can’t you smell him or some shit?” Richie asked.

“No, that’s just something I say to scare you.”

Vampires could hear really well, but scent wasn’t as strong. It was better than a human’s, but not good enough to track someone. If he were nearby, she could smell him, but he wasn’t close enough.

There were some small rapids that were a few hundred feet away from the pipes in the direction of town.

Paul’s attention snapped towards town. Marko heard something, too, and tilted his head to hear better.

“What was it?” Nightshade asked. She heard it, too, after a second.

_ I’ll light his hair like Michael Jackson! Ha! _

“The bridge,” Paul told Marko. “Text David and Dwayne.”

_ The bridge. Bowers got him. ~NW _

They heard a cacophony of outraged shouts.

_ My knife! My old man will kill me! _

And then the scent hit all three of them. Blood. He was close.

_ Not there. Heard Bowers yelling, though. Down the hill where you fucked up your knee. ~David _

Ben crashed down the small rapids and landed in the water.

“Holy shit!”

Leave it to Richie to curse in any situation.

“He's bleeding. We need to get him patched up,” Mike said.

“I'll drive us.”

 

***

 

They all stood in the alley behind the pharmacy while Eddie dressed the H carved into Ben’s stomach.

“I'm going to fucking kill him,” Nightshade growled. “For real this time.”

“Can I come?” Richie asked. “I wanna watch.”

“Last time we did that, you streamed it on YouTube. And then I got stabbed a week later. The answer is no.”

She made sure Ben was ok and find her target. Dwayne was following closely behind in case she needed backup.

She saw the car parked on the street by the library. Nightshade saw three people inside. One was missing.

“I'll be back.”

Nightshade crossed the street and knocked on the passenger side window.

“Get the fuck out, Bowers. We need to talk.”

Henry didn't move. Nightshade lunged forward and grabbed his neck. “I swear I will rip your throat out if you lay a hand on any of those kids.” Nightshade dug her nails into his skin, drawing blood. “Do you understand me?”

Henry flicked his cigarette onto her feet and got out of the car. He towered over Nightshade, but that wasn't stopping her. Nightshade threw a punch and landed a blow to his jaw, receiving the same hit in return.

Dwayne was acting as lookout and saw a police car down the street. He ran across the street and pulled Nightshade off of Bowers. She had gotten him face down on the ground with her knee on his back to keep him there.

“If the cops see you, you'll get arrested for real this time.”

Nightshade got a kick to the back of his leg in before Dwayne finally dragged her away. There was a large gash in the paint from when Nightshade had used her key to scrape the car in retaliation for them beating up Stan. It was still noticeable. 

They had been in the car when she did it.

When they crossed the street and started walking back to Nightshade’s house, they heard something. They dismissed it as the Neibolt house, which was on their way, creaking with the wind. Only problem? There was no wind. And that sound was definitely someone screaming. That was a masculine scream. It was vaguely familiar, but Nightshade still couldn't place it. Neither could Dwayne.

_ Is everyone ok? ~NW _

Everyone replied that they were fine. That was odd.

“I didn't see Hockstetter when I tried to fuck it Bowers. He probably did it. Whatever it was, he did it.”

“Do you think he's the one who screamed? I didn't see him anywhere nearby when you attacked Bowers. I don't doubt that he did something, but that scream was familiar in a way. Like when you attacked him.”

“He's probably off being a pyromaniac psycho in the woods.” 

Dwayne nodded, continuing up the hill to Nightshade’s house. Out of that whole gang, Nightshade had always hated Patrick the most. Patrick had never ceased harassing her from the moment she started tutoring him over a year ago.

Nightshade and Dwayne entered the house, where David, Paul and Marko were waiting for them.

“We heard a scream.”

“So did we. It was in the woods,” Dwayne told them. “By the Barrens.”

“It was weirdly echoed. Like they were underground,” Paul said.

“Probably the distance,” David added.

Marko mulled it over briefly.

“Distance wouldn't make it echo like that. It was a metallic echo. I heard the same effect when Nightshade screamed earlier.”

Something weird was happening in this town and they were all on edge about it. After Georgie went missing, more kids followed and almost all of them saw something weird at some point. The others had heard and dreaded the day the same happened to them.

The following week, Nightshade woke up to her phone vibrating a foot away from her on the table next to her bed. She ignored it. Nightshade’s phone vibrated again and showed a message from an unknown number.

_ What the fuck did you do to Patrick, you crazy bitch? _

David was half asleep beside Nightshade.

“Babe, someone thinks I killed Hockstetter.”

After that afternoon, Patrick hadn't showed up from the woods. His missing poster had gone up recently. The cops looked into it, saying he was missing after extensive searches in the woods and around town. Everyone suspected he had skipped town for a while to scare everyone. He liked doing shit like that, scaring people for fun. It was part of his grand experiment as the “only real person.”  _ Fucking weirdo. _

“You didn't, did you?”

“No. I'm not stupid. Everyone would suspect me.”

Nightshade’s parents were out of town for some convention and David had been staying with her after what happened in the sewer. The burn and cut on her arm had to be treated by Max, to whom they had to tell everything. That had been horrible.

“Babe, someone just pulled up to your house,” David said, hearing the gravel crunch under tires.

Nightshade checked through a crack in the blinds. It was cloudy. There would be a storm later.

“David, it’s the cops.”

“Holy shit! What did you do?!”

“I didn't do anything they'd find out about!” Nightshade cried. They walked downstairs and opened the door as Sheriff Bowers raised his fist to knock.

“How did you anticipate that?”

“I heard you roll up. What's wrong? Are you reopening my case?”

“No. We actually have to take you down to the station to ask you a few questions.”

“About what?”

“Patrick Hockstetter.”

Nightshade knew Henry had mentioned something.

“I don't know anything. And tell your son to stop texting accusations to me. I didn't do anything to him that would make him disappear.”

David looked past Nightshade and saw exactly who he expected. Henry Bowers, leaning against his father’s truck.

“Why don't you ask Henry where he got his information, Sheriff? It seems biased,” David said. “You know he hates Nightshade so he'd do anything to fuck up her life. He already did, but now he's trying to make it worse.”

“You and your friends were in the woods that morning. They do it?”

“No. Good day, Sheriff.”

Nightshade slammed the door and turned to David.

“What the fucking hell?! How am I the prime suspect in this? This is a fucking pattern with the other missing kids! Can't those cops see it?”

There was another knock on the door. Nightshade had clearly heard the truck pull away.

She checked the peephole and saw something unnerving.

Michael Emerson and a red balloon. She stumbled back and David checked, seeing the same thing.

“God damn.”

David locked the door and pulled Nightshade back upstairs.

“We’re not gonna talk about this. Ever.” Nightshade nodded in agreement and sat against her closed door. 

_ Fucking hell. _


	8. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's gore, please be warned. Also we can see a hint at Nightshade's fear we encountered in the sewer. Besides Michael, she does fear another thing. Have a guess at what it is.

Static.

There wasn’t a sound Nightshade could discern. Everything was a buzz. The sounds all blended into white noise within the bus. Nightshade had awoken from a nightmare and went for a drive. She had parked outside the school and laid down in the back of the bus. All the sounds that had blended into one were from the woods that surrounded Derry.

She jolted up when footsteps started approaching the back door of the bus. A cop had probably recognized her bus and decided to approach her about breaking curfew.

_ Shitshitshitshit! _

Whoever was outside knocked on the door and Nightshade pulled back the curtain to see Paul standing outside. She slid the door open and let him in, continuing to sit on the floor.

“I went to your place to see if you were there.”

“Nope.”

“What’s up? You only get like this when something’s wrong.”

“Nightmare.”

Paul nodded and exhaled heavily before taking a cigarette out of his pocket. He offered one to Nightshade, who declined.

Something was  _ really  _ wrong if she rejected a cigarette.

“I’ve already smoked two.”

“How long have you been out here?”

Nightshade checked the time on her phone.

“Four hours.”

Paul didn’t need to ask what had gotten Nightshade so upset. It was the anniversary of when they had first met Michael. Nightshade hadn’t liked him to begin with. He only wanted to be around for Star. Star and Nightshade had been really good friends, but after Michael came along, everything seemed different. Nightshade loved all of the boys, but her underlying feelings for David, who was a shameless flirt, made everything awkward. Star ran a sort of interference between them. The way Michael became one of them and told those damned kids about their presence. He had stabbed David with a taxidermied deer head and tried killing the others. They had gotten out fast enough to seek refuge in Max’s basement while David tried to heal his wounds. The others had all received less severe injuries, not being considered for the position of “head vampire.” Michael never did figure out that it was Max.

Nightshade had been grazed in the leg with a stake that had been steeped in holy water, leaving a nasty scar and a temporary limp. Paul had received burns from holy water as well, which he covered with his jacket. Marko had also gotten stabbed with a stake, which hadn’t hit his heart, but had gotten him in the shoulder and hurt like hell. Dwayne had been shot with an arrow. Which was stupid on the part of those kids. None of their injuries had been fatal, but left scars behind. Nasty ones, both mental and physical. They were all cautious of bringing people who  _ could  _ be turned into the friend group. There was a teacher with the last name of Emerson whose classes they all avoided. They couldn’t trust her.

“You’re… wearing your own clothes.”

“Yeah?”

“You  _ never  _ do that. Do you have a fever?” Paul teased, pressing the back of his hand to Nightshade’s forehead.

“Felt like doing it,” Nightshade replied, shrugging.

“How long do you plan on staying out here?”

“As long as it takes.”

“Was your nightmare about Michael?” Paul had really just assumed that it was about Michael due to the timing.

“Michael, Bowers, Hockstetter, Huggins. All of them.”

“Geez. I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault. I’ve put my trust in a lot of guys who ended up fucking me up in some way or another. As long as I’m not dead for real, I’ll be fine.”

Not a healthy way of looking at things, but it worked.

Nightshade’s parents had wanted to send her to a therapist in order to deal with her problems, but she had protested. One of the reasons she had issues was because someone attempted to kill her for being a vampire. She wasn’t technically alive. Sure, she outwardly functioned as a living being, but that meant nothing to the rest of her body. Everything medical was handled by Max. He had been around for a while and knew what to do in order to take care of any younger vampires. Nightshade fell down a hill and permanently fucked up her knee? Max fitted a brace for her and figured out what exactly happened. David broke his wrist popping a wheelie on his motorcycle? Max set the bone and fitted his cast. After scolding him for being reckless. Marko keeps tripping and finally fucks up his ankle? Max helps the sprain heal and asks a lot of questions nobody can answer. The list went on.

“Do you want me to stay with you?”

“If you want to, I wouldn’t protest.”

 

***

 

“Bev, do you have a cigarette?”

They were standing in the alley behind the pharmacy waiting for Mike and Bill to show up. The four of them planned to investigate some areas around town where kids had disappeared.

Bev handed over a cigarette and Nightshade balanced it between her lips, cupping her hand around the end while lighting it.

“They were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago,” Bev said. “Where the hell are they? Can you hear them?”

Nightshade strained to listen. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“No.”

Bill nearly crashed coming around the corner. He was supposed to come with Mike, who was still absent. Mike actually did crash from taking the corner too hard. He hastily explained that he had been making a delivery to the butcher for his grandfather.

“I didn’t want to be late,” he wheezed, leaning on the wall. “But I saw something in the alleyway.”

“Why were you back there? You make your deliveries up front,” Bev asked.

“I saw Bowers’ car pass the shop while I was out front, so I went to the alley. The doorway… Singed hands and a strange figure were inside. I heard people screaming.”

“What kind of figure?” Nightshade asked.

“I couldn’t see it well because those guys came down the alley and tried to hit me, but it looked like a clown.”

“They tried to hit you?!”

“And Henry threw a cigarette on me.”

“Son of a bitch,” Nightshade muttered.

She couldn't go out of her way to start a fight. They were doing something that was time sensitive. Nightshade would probably go out tonight to feed so she could look, but they were doing this as a group during the day.

“What about Georgie?” Mike asked Bill as they walked.

“Georgie was out d-d-during a rainstorm. He was s-s-small enough to wash down a storm drain. We didn't find anything from him in the Barrens.”

“We found Betty Ripsom’s shoe down there. The same probably happened to her. I remember that she was tiny when I tutored her,” Nightshade added.

Nightshade was walking under her umbrella and had an arm around Bev’s shoulders.

“You saw something in the sewers, too,” Bev said quietly to Nightshade. “When we were all looking for Georgie.”

Nightshade had mentioned that only to David, Bev, Mike and Bill. The others only knew about the first time Nightshade saw something weird by the sewers. They also all assumed it was because she hadn't fed in a while at the time.

“I also saw that balloon on my run a few weeks ago. The same red Santa Carla one I saw when I was actually in the sewer.”

“That, Stan and his painting, all the kids disappearing in the sewer grates or ending up in that area must mean something,” Bev said.

Bill was about to add something else, but a revving engine cut him off.

“You guys wanna see something cool?” Nightshade asked quietly. “Stay by the wall.”

Bev knew what she was about to do.

“Hey, Bowers!”

Belch slammed on the brakes when Henry told him, instead of coasting beside the small group on the sidewalk. Henry contorted his body to be half out the window to look at Nightshade. She walked closer to the car and stood on the curb.

“You still wanna give me that good time you and your friends always promise?”

Henry reached out to grab her waist, but Nightshade caught his wrist and punched him in the nose. She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, leaving a dark red lipstick stain.

“Keep moving,” she ordered.

“How many times have you watched  _ Holes?”  _ Mike asked when she got back, recognizing the move.

“Too many.”

Bev had seen Nightshade do that before. It was almost scary how sweet she could seem, only to go in for the kill. She saw her do it for the first time before they became friends, when Nightshade had punched Vic in the jaw for harassing her alongside Patrick. Nightshade hit both of them and gave each a kiss on the cheek to mark their shame. Everyone soon knew when Nightshade got into a fight. Her victims always had her signature on them. A deep red lipstick stain would adorn the right cheek of the loser of the fight.

The group kept moving, marking each area with a small piece of colored tape.

“Hold on,” Nightshade said, tilting her head when she heard something clawing at the metal grate they had just marked. She whipped around and saw a clawed hand wearing an old clown costume clawing the tape off.

“Stop marking them!” she ordered, walking towards the struggling arm. She put her umbrella down and used the metal spike at the tip to poke the arm. Whatever it was shrieked and lunged at her, grabbing the end of the umbrella and trying to pull her down. She struggled against it and heard a maniacal laugh echoing in the sewer. Nightshade thrust the umbrella forward and stabbed through the hand. A scream of pain rang through her ears and Nightshade pulled her umbrella away. There was blood on the tip.

Nightshade examined it before tentatively licking the blood to identify it. She gagged and spat it out on the ground.

“Not human. Bitter.” She paused for a second. “I have to get home.”

It was starting to get late and she had just hit an overwhelming hunger for human blood.

_ Meet me in the woods at dark. I'm starving. ~NW _

Nightshade hurried back to her house. Which meant she had to pass the Neibolt house. She lived on the same street, but up on a hill with a lot of trees surrounding her property so her house couldn't be seen.

_ “Nightshade.” _

She froze and turned towards the decrepit house.

“Whatever,” she muttered rolling her eyes. Nightshade turned back to get home but someone was blocking her path. “Stan, you don't even live out here. What are you doing by this place?”

“I heard what kind of monster you are. Michael told me.”

“This isn't real,” Nightshade muttered.

“Michael tried to kill me.  _ He's _ the monster.”

Stan lunged forward, knocking Nightshade to the ground and pinning her there. She struggled against his grip and tried reaching for something to use.

Nightshade nearly clawed him but stopped.

“Please, Nightshade. Don't hurt me.”

She let her hand drop.

“You know I would never do that to Stan. You, though? You I'll hurt,” Nightshade growled, slashing him across the face. The scream of agony dissipated with the figure holding her down. Nightshade, still lying on the ground, saw the same figure from the sewer on the porch. It wore the same ratty clown outfit as the arm she saw earlier.

She scrambled to her feet and sprinted home, slamming the door behind her and putting her back against it when she closed her eyes.

“Nightshade?”

Her eyes snapped open and Nightshade bared her fangs, backing David into a wall with the point of her umbrella at his neck.

“Stay back!”

“Babe, easy! It's just me!”

Nightshade dropped the umbrella and put her head against his chest.

“What did you see?”

“The same thing I saw in the sewer at the condemned house down the street. Except it was Stan this time. It wasn't Bev.”

David held her face in his hands, examining Nightshade.

“You're face has lost color and you're clammy. You must feed. As soon as possible.”

 

***

 

“It'll be fun,” Marko told the college students they had found in the woods. They seemed to be camping. They were from out of town. The others were perched high above.

“Sorry, man, but we don't deal with kids.”

Nightshade and David exchanged a look.

“We are not doing ‘get help!’ I fucking hate it!” Nightshade hissed. 

“Babe, if we don't do ‘get help,’ we’ll starve. We don't have to do it next time.”

“Fine.”

In a flourish they disappeared and ended up down the path.

Nightshade had to pretend to be passed out and, sometimes, on the brink of death.

“Please help, my girlfriend stopped breathing!” David pleaded with the group.

“Shit, man! Lay her down.”

David put Nightshade’s limp form on the ground as one of the campers started getting her ready for CPR.

When he leaned down to see if anything was obstructing her airway, she snapped awake and bared her fangs, biting down on his throat.

She flipped him onto his back and started to tear at the flesh around his neck. She practically lapped up the blood, making sure none of it was wasted. They couldn't leave evidence.

They finished feeding and Nightshade looked up, blood covering the lower half of her face. It was splattered over her clothes, too. The boys were all in similar shape.

“Leave the campsite, but put out the fire,” Dwayne instructed. “That applies to David and Nightshade, too!” he added pointedly, noticing the two off to the side kissing.

“That's fucking gross!” Paul shouted. “You're both covered in blood and can't get away from each other. Leave room for Jesus!”

“They may be dead, but the romance sure as hell isn't!” Marko called.

“That's good, I'll give you that,” Nightshade replied, pulling away from David.

They were all heading home, still covered in blood, avoiding all populated areas. It was past curfew and they could get in serious trouble. Especially since they had just murdered a group of college students.

“We have to check out the sewers tomorrow. Something's wrong with them and I saw it again. The figure from the sewer. From when the fake Bev and Stan attacked me.”

“We’ll go tomorrow afternoon, babe.”


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wrote the projector scene. Since this is an AU, I'm not following the exact timeline. Also, for anyone who has seen Leverage, I channeled Nate in the last line. And I hint at an odd friendship Nightshade may have and will explain later on.  
> Enjoy!

“Where did you see the s-s-s-second one?” Bill asked Nightshade while they all sat in the garage. There had been more incidents since then amongst the group. A new missing poster covered Patrick Hockstetter’s and the group was taking action.

“In front of the condemned house on Neibolt street. The first time I actually saw something was  _ in  _ the sewer.”

“Bev?”

“It came up the sink’s drain.”

They all cringed a bit. Bev had run to find all of them after a balloon had come out of her sink and splashed blood everywhere. She had enlisted her friends to help clean it up. She had told Nightshade about the voices she’d heard. Of the missing kids. They pleaded for her help before the blood.

“David?”

Nightshade had convinced David to tell Bill, their mastermind, about when they saw Michael. Especially since the other boys had seen him. Paul and Marko had been scared out of their wits when they saw him.

“I saw Michael when we were at Nightshade’s house. He was outside. Nightshade lives on Neibolt.”

Bill was making marks on a map of Derry.

“What about any of the missing kids? Do we know where they were taken?” Mike asked.

“Hockstetter went missing in the Barrens. I heard him scream in one of the pipes. David and I also found a can of hairspray and a lighter down there when we went to look around. We both based it off scent and other factors and found some pretty damning evidence of it being him.”

“What was that ‘ _ damning evidence _ ?’” Richie asked.

“We found his hand,” David stated. “Whatever this thing is, it kills certain people and spares others. And I’m using the term ‘spare’ loosely.”

“How do you know it spares people?” Eddie asked.

“We’ve all been spared. Whether it be from running away or whatever, we’ve all survived.”

Bill had avoided it in his own basement by running upstairs, Mike when he was almost run over, Ben by running through the library’s archives, Nightshade fought back, the boys would either fight, run or hide, Stan ran from his father’s office and Bev was also kept alive. The only others so far were Richie and Eddie, who hadn’t seen anything yet.

Bill put the map up on the wall with a projection of old Derry on top.

“Whatever it is travels by the sewers,” Mike explained, looking at the maps. All of the places connected by pipelines and the house on Neibolt street seemed to be at the center.

The slide flipped. It was a picture of Bill and Georgie from last winter.

“Bill, go back,” Stan said.

Bill pressed a button to make the projector go back a slide. Nothing happened. They could attribute it to the projector just being really fucking old. It was from the late eighties.

The slide flipped again. And again. Now the picture was of the Denbrough family. Mrs. Denbrough’s face had been covered by her hair due to a gust of wind.

Again. It was zooming closer to Georgie.

“Turn it off!” Bev shouted.

Again. Now it was focusing on Mrs. Denbrough. Her hair was moving as the pictures kept flipping. Everyone started telling Bill to shut it off. He kept trying. Nothing happened. The face beneath the hair was revealed. It wasn’t Mrs. Denbrough. It was the clown.

Mike kicked the projector on its side.

It was still for a moment. Nightshade and David still sat stiffly on their stools next to Stan. Everyone was on edge.

They heard a cackle as the clown lunged out of the projection and towards them. Everyone went into panic mode. Richie and Eddie grabbed one another, Nightshade grabbed Stan’s arm and pulled him back. David did the same with Nightshade, backing the three of them against the wall. Nightshade had her eyes squeezed shut and her breathing accelerated. Everyone was shouting something different, creating a garbled mess of sounds.

_ Don’t let me lose them the way I lost Laddie. _

And as soon as it started, it was over. Bill opened the garage door, causing David to shy away from the light flooding the room. Nightshade stayed planted where she was.

“Babe, you’re going to get burned.”

David’s voice just blended into the static she heard. She could only feel fear. Nightshade felt her stomach twist every time she thought about only grabbing Stan and dragging him away. She hadn’t gotten anyone else. She had abandoned the friends she viewed as her own children and only saved one. Nightshade took a sharp inhale and covered her mouth with her hands, feeling tears starting to fall down her face.

“Nightshade!” Bev shouted, getting her attention. Bev gestured towards the light that washed over the lower half of Nightshade’s legs, already forming a burn on her right calf. Nightshade stepped back and bumped into David.

“What’s wrong? You’re not acting right.”

Nightshade turned around and faced him.

“They all could have died because I couldn’t get to them,” she sobbed. “I could’ve lost all of those kids just like how I nearly lost you to Michael! Too many people have almost died because I was too slow to save them!”

“Babe, you did what you could. They’re all safe.”

“What if that thing had gotten any closer? They wouldn’t have been safe then! None of us would have! We moved to this goddamn place to get away from things that want to murder us! Not so a demon clown could try its hand at killing our family!”

Everyone fell silent. Nightshade never showed this much emotion. She was normally stoic, annoyed at the very least. Nightshade Waters didn’t cry or scream after being in danger. She was always composed. Bev had seen her cry only twice before this. Once in the bathroom when they first met and another time after that. The others had  _ never  _ seen her cry. Even David was in shock. She had been upset when she told him everything Bowers and his friends did to her, but  _ this  _ was on its own level. The only person who had seen her cry like  _ this  _ had been Victor Criss when he walked her home those two nights.

“I need to take a walk,” she muttered, wiping the remaining tears on her sleeve, which did nothing because the leather just smeared them around and made the runny eyeliner worse. And with that, she left.

“Should someone go with her?” Mike asked David.

“No. She’ll talk to us when she’s ready. Nightshade just needs some time to herself.”

He knew all about the nighttime adventures when she would go and drive around before parking somewhere to be alone with her thoughts. She once got as far as the Canadian border before turning around. Usually, though, she went to the edge of town and sat there. It was quiet and nobody bothered her out there. Except for the occasional joyriding teenager passing by.

She said nothing when she got catcalled from a car. Now wasn’t the time to fight. Nightshade walked to the park and stationed herself on a bench under a tree. She tapped her nails against the wood next to her leg.

“Pathetic,” she hissed at herself. Nightshade shook her head and coughed out a humorless laugh.

_ What a fucking sight I must be to everyone here. _

“The tough girl façade won’t do anything for you anymore. They’ve seen you show weakness. You cried in front of them, you pathetic bitch! You might as well be the scared girl you used to be!”

Those words weren’t from her mouth. That voice was familiar, though. Nightshade tensed, placing the voice. This one had to be a hallucination created by that thing.

The voice belonged to that police officer she had hunted down for dismissing her case and placing all the blame on her. Nightshade looked up at her. Her throat was torn open and blood had soaked through her uniform. There was blood splashed on her face.

“I am not weak.”

“Then why didn’t you tell them to stop? Why did you stay with him?! Why, Nightshade?!”

“ _ I am not weak!” _ Nightshade screamed. The officer disappeared. There wasn’t a trace of the clown she had seen every other time before. Nightshade cocked her head to the side. A cold, bony hand grabbed her neck from behind and Nightshade reached to grab the source’s arm.

“You’re just crazy, aren’t ya?”

“No!”

Nightshade grabbed the arm and pushed it away, turning towards her attacker. She lunged forward and got a grip on Henry’s collar.

“Get away from me! I am not crazy and I am not something you can play with!” Nightshade pushed Henry to the ground. “Do you understand me?”

Two people grabbed either of Nightshade’s arms and pulled her off Henry.

“Fuck you, Bowers!” David shouted as Henry ran away.

“You good, Nightshade?” Mike asked. Bev and Mike had been the ones to pull Nightshade off of Henry.

“We heard you scream down the road,” Bev explained. “David had us run to find you.”

Nightshade saw a balloon tied to the park sign. She wasn’t crazy.  _ It  _ was making her seem like she was.

“Let’s kill ourselves a demon clown.”


	10. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hmmmmmmmmm Nightshade has a lot of secrets that nobody knows about. Let's see how this goes. Next chapter will be another flashback!

“Bill, got any idea where this thing hides out?”

“The house on Neibolt street.”

Nightshade flicked the ashes off her cigarette. It was hotter than hell outside and she was still wearing her jacket. She stared into the distance with a blank expression.

“Are you ok?” Mike asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“She lives up the road from that house,” Bev explained. Mike always wanted to sit in the dark area of Nightshade’s van with the others so he couldn’t see the street she lived on. He knew she had to pass that house on her way home, but not that  _ IT  _ was basically her neighbor.

“My neighbor is a demon clown that steals kids. Awesome.”

Nightshade felt her phone vibrate against her side and pulled it out, half expecting a panicked text from David. He had had the most recent encounter with  _ IT  _ and had nearly been killed by Michael. Nightshade hadn’t feared Michael as much as the boys did. She feared what he did to them. Michael had been close to them and betrayed them when he decided he didn’t want to kill people to survive. A little ironic that he tried killing his five friends, no? Michael wasn’t Nightshade’s problem. His betrayal and attempted murder was what she tried avoiding. That was why she had been so secretive about vampirism with her new friends. Luckily they had accepted it. Hell, they thought it was  _ cool  _ that she was a blood-sucking creature of the night. Her parents hadn’t been quite the same. She had a younger brother at the time she was turned, but he had to stay with relatives because her parents had feared she wouldn’t be able to control her need to kill. They thought being a vampire was like going through puberty. Every hormone was raging and she would lash out at any second. Not the case. After a feeding, it was easy to keep the thirst for blood under control. Her parents were still concerned and for a good reason. They had a teenager who killed people to survive and a defenseless toddler. They did it to protect both of their kids. And whenever the topic came up of him moving to Derry with them, Nightshade told her parents something was wrong with the town. She once went as far as to come home covered in blood so her parents would drop the subject. They didn’t. They knew she was under control. They wouldn’t believe her about the demon clown. She accepted that, but still tried to keep her brother safe.

The text was not from David. It was from Nightshade’s mother.

_ Shit. _

“I have to go.”

Nightshade started running back to her house. This was bad. She had just learned that she lived next door to a demon sewer clown that steals kids and her mother dropped this bomb on her?

Nightshade cut through an alley to avoid drawing too much attention to herself.

Someone stopped her by grabbing Nightshade around the waist and pulling her back.

“I have never seen you run. What's wrong?”

“Victor, I had half a mind to rip your throat out! You know you can't do that. And if you have to know, my brother is moving back in and I'm worried about him. With all the kids going missing, I can't get him back and lose him.”

“Is he coming back from college?”

“No. He's seven.”

“Why didn't he live with you guys?”

Nightshade raised an eyebrow and slid her sunglasses down her nose to look at Victor.

“Fair enough, I forgot about that.”

How he forgot was irrelevant. Especially since Nightshade had made a habit of scaring his friends by baring her fangs and sometimes chasing them through the woods.

“So where are your friends that you're hanging with me in a back alley?”

“I'm waiting for them. They're in the drug store getting cigarettes and soda.”

Nightshade was well aware that “getting” meant “stealing.”

“Do you need me to leave as soon as possible, Vic?”

“No, I’ll just need it to look like we got in a fight. Just don’t hurt me too bad.”

“So a light push to the ground and I’ll kiss you on the cheek to make it look like you lost?” Nightshade asked with a slight laugh. “Seriously, I don’t understand why you stay with them. I understand that you want immunity from bullies and that Reginald is your best friend, but you can sure as hell get immunity from anyone by hanging out with me and still be friends with him. I’m just worried about you hanging out with Henry. Especially since he has never defended you when his father started messing with you or when Patrick did it. And I know you have a soft spot for some of those kids I hang out with. You warned Eddie that Henry was coming after him once.”

Victor really did have a complicated relationship with the gang. He was really there for Belch, who was his best friend. He was pretty close with Nightshade when she had been part of the gang by dating Henry. Butch, Henry’s father, would go as far as to abuse Henry’s friends to show dominance when they were around. Nightshade and Vic had gotten some of the worst treatment when they were at the house. Victor was often the target of slurs based on sexuality and gender identity since he wasn’t “masculine” in Butch’s view. Nightshade was headstrong and had authority issues, which would sometimes lead to her talking back when Butch said something to her. She was also a girl who liked Henry and that wasn’t acceptable in the Bowers house. He was a “paper man” who feared things. Nightshade didn’t spend much time at Henry’s house when his dad was around after he had grabbed her wrist while drunk and Nightshade, acting on impulse, aimed a blow at his jaw.

“Victor, all I’m saying is that you are always welcome to hang out around my friends. We won’t let anyone talk shit about you. Okay?”

Vic muttered something and Nightshade kissed him on the cheek before running home.

“Why did you think this was a good idea?” Nightshade asked her mother. “Where is he?”

“He’s spent enough time away from us! You’re under control now, anyway. In his room. Go see him.”

Nightshade ran upstairs and to the room down the hall.

“Hey, kid.”

The little boy jumped off his bed and into Nightshade’s arms.

“Why is part of your hair blue?”

“I dyed it.”

“Why are your clothes too big?”

“They aren’t. I’m too small for my clothes.”

Hemlock mulled it over but soon got confused by the way his sister spoke. He didn’t remember much about her, except what she looked like, but those pictures were old. The last picture he had seen of her had been from when she first moved to Derry and still had brown hair. Nobody ever explained to Hemlock the exact reason he was forced to move in with his aunt for three years. He knew his sister was going through something, but not much more. All he really knew was that he was glad to be back with his parents and sister.

Nightshade couldn’t say the same about her brother. She was ecstatic that her parents finally trusted that she and the boys weren’t bloodthirsty killers who couldn’t control themselves, but there were other factors. She didn’t want any bullies like Bowers targeting her brother or whatever supernatural thing living in the house down the street coming for him.

“Hemlock, I have some rules for you living here. Will you listen to them?” Hemlock nodded and sat on his bed with Nightshade beside him. “There are a lot of bullies in this town, you have to promise that you will never go outside without me. Curfew is at seven and you can’t, under any circumstances, leave the house after that time. And finally, never go in the yard of the abandoned house down the street. Understand?”

Hemlock was distracted by something in the corner of the room.

_ Oh my god. This is going to be harder than I thought. _

Nightshade snapped her fingers, catching Hemlock’s attention.

“Did you hear anything I just said?”

Hemlock repeated Nightshade’s words and asked a few questions regarding words she used and content, but understood after Nightshade gave the best explanation she could, given the current situation.

“Can I go to the park?”

“Do you wanna meet my friends there?”

Since he hadn’t been part of his sister’s life for so long, Hemlock’s eyes lit up at the thought of Nightshade wanting him to meet her friends. They were probably going to be super cool, just like her! He nodded quickly and Nightshade quickly sent a text to the group chat and separate one to Vic. Vic replied immediately. He couldn’t make it because he was out with Henry and Belch.

“I have to change, but we can go after that. Do you want to walk or drive there?”

Hemlock wanted to walk. Of course he did. She would just walk quickly past the house down the hill.

Derry was too dangerous for a kid like Hemlock. He was sweet like Georgie and nice to everyone, from what Nightshade could remember. Maybe he had changed after all that time, but it was unlikely. Nightshade was the anomaly of the family. Her parents had been hippies and encouraged their kids to love everyone. Nightshade wanted to fight everyone. Her parents did understand that she hated people for hurting her and that she needed to kill to survive. They never forced their way of life on her.

They arrived at the park and Nightshade saw the others staring at her like she was covered in blood.

“Guys, this is my little brother. Hemlock, these are my friends.”


	11. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first showdown with the clown! A little emotional, fuckin spooky and an overall good time (not really. everyone's miserable)

_ “So, I’ve been assigned to tutor some kids after school. Do you wanna wait for me or not?” Nightshade asked David as they walked back to their lockers. _

_ “I’ll wait for you. This town can be dangerous ad I don’t want you going out alone. Especially not with those weird guys who always stare at you hanging around. I started tutoring in English and I have all four of them. They fucking suck!” _

_ Nightshade hoped she didn’t have to tutor those boys, too. David was right. They stared at her in a slightly predatory manner every time she walked by them in the hall. One of them had started talking to her the other day and it took one of his friends and Dwayne to get the guy away from Nightshade. He was a lanky fuck but he was strong. She was pretty sure his name was Patrick or something like that. _

_ “Better than anything I’ve ever seen in Derry,” one of them said, sitting behind Nightshade during study hall. Two of them, Patrick and their leader with a shitty mullet, were in her study hall after lunch. _

_ Nightshade sighed and turned in her seat to face them. _

_ “If you guys are gonna keep talking about me, go somewhere else so I don’t have to be forced to listen to it. Or you can just shut the fuck up and leave me alone.” _

_ “Hey, princess, I wouldn’t get too confident. You gotta tutor us after school today,” Mullet told Nightshade. She couldn’t remember his first name. Only that he was the leader and they called themselves the Bowers Gang.  _

_ “Wow, I must be the luckiest girl in town to be stuck with your sorry asses after school three times a week,” Nightshade replied in a monotone. _

_ “C’mon, sweetheart, it won’t be too bad. I could show you a good time afterwards,” Patrick offered, grabbing her arm from behind. Nightshade grabbed his hand and dug her nails into his skin. _

_ “Fuck. Off.” _

 

***

 

Nightshade snapped her attention to Neibolt. The gang had decided to storm the place and get that fucking clown. David and Bev were standing watch outside. For some reason, those two drew the short straw when everyone else told Bill they wouldn’t go in. Nightshade had seen something odd in the bushes. It was a silver ring. When Nightshade picked up the ring and saw the blood, she, ignoring the shouts of protest from her friends, licked the blood to identify it.

“It’s mine and it’s fresh. I don’t bleed like that, though.”

Nightshade pocketed the ring when nobody was looking. She had a theory on it. Bev, however, caught her and pulled Nightshade aside after everyone else went into the house.

“What was that?”

“When I first started dating Bowers after I moved here, they decided we should come into this place and raise some hell. Bowers tried to do some stuff to me and tried to stab me when I denied him. He had Hockstetter hold me back and he made a cut on my arm. Since I was only half when we moved here, I bled a lot and Hockstetter was weird about it and grabbed my arm to taste the blood.”

“Was this before everything else?”

“Yes. I never told David about it because I was afraid of what he’d think of me for staying with those guys. I have to go inside. I’ll tell you more later.”

Bev had seen the scar on Nightshade’s arm plenty of times. She knew David knew about it, but not its origins. Whenever he showed any type of affection and they weren’t in public, he would always softly kiss the scar. Despite their very rough exteriors, Nightshade and David were very sweet to one another. Bev idolized their relationship and frequently took candid pictures of them.

It was still dusty as hell in that old place. There was graffiti in every room and a few footprints here and there. Everything was starting to fall apart and when the group split up, all hell broke loose for each one.

Nightshade went upstairs with Bill, Richie and Eddie. Those three went down one end of the hall and Nightshade in the opposite direction.

_ “Nightshade, help me!” _

Nightshade took off in a run down the hall to find her brother. The room at the end was empty and so were all the others. The end room’s door slammed shut when she entered.

“Richie, you aren’t funny!” Nightshade shouted, trying to wrench the door open. Someone grabbed her from behind and threw her to the ground. Nightshade was choking on the cloud of dust that erupted around her on impact. When she could finally see again, she made out a very familiar face.

“Hey, you royal jackass.”

“Hi, Nightshade,” Michael replied. Footsteps. Nightshade sprang to her feet and looked to her left, where the sound was.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” she muttered, seeing Henry on her other side.

_ Well, I guess they both have to die. _

She knew it was fake. Michael wasn’t in Derry and would never find her. This was all an illusion, but considering the other ones tried killing her, she was fighting back. Especially since she hated them.

“You both know you’re too weak to fight me. Bowers, I can make you flinch just by talking. Michael, you’re a punk bitch who gets kids to fight for him and betrays his friends.”

Nightshade felt the oxygen leave her lungs when her back hit the wall and Michael held her in place. Nightshade reached back and tried scratching at anything she could reach.

She bared her fangs when Bowers came closer, holding a stake. And then there was another set of footsteps.

“Hope I didn’t miss the party.”

“David?!”

Sure enough, David came into view and stood beside Henry. Nightshade did the only thing she could in the situation. She screamed. It wasn’t something she did often, but when she did, it was ungodly. The three boys vanished and the door opened. Someone grabbed Nightshade’s wrist, causing her to pivot and slash their face with her nails.

“What the  _ fuck?!” _

“Richie, I’m so sorry!” NIghtshade tried inspecting the damage. Richie took a few steps back.

“Get away from me!”

There was a crash downstairs and they both sprinted to find the source. Richie was down there faster since he wanted to get as far from Nightshade as possible.

“Don’t you fucking touch me!”

There was a sickening crack and Eddie screamed in pain.

Something hit Nightshade in the stomach and sent her into the wall. The rotten drywall caved in on impact and coated Nightshade in even more dust.

Silence.

The only sound was Eddie crying.

When they all got outside, Richie let loose on Nightshade.

“Richard! I was attacked by that thing and it took the form of two men who betrayed me and the one I love! I was  _ scared!”  _

“Maybe if you didn’t have to overcompensate to scare everyone, I wouldn’t have my face clawed open!”

“Overcompensate? What the fuck does that mean?”

“Newsflash, Nightshade, people don’t hate you because you’re scary. They hate you because you’re a bitch.”

Nightshade gasped and stared at Richie, obviously hurt by what he had said. David noticed that her eyes had begun to well with tears but she fought them back. He gave her a look that asked if she was ok and Nightshade gave a nearly imperceptible shake of her head.

“Richie!” Bev scolded.

“What the fuck, Richard?” David added.

“Y’know what, Richie? Fuck you! I protect you and when I lash out because I’m scared, you betray me.” Nightshade hopped the fence and walked up the hill to her house.

When she slammed the door shut, Nightshade let out a distressed scream and slid down the wall, tears creating harsh lines in the dust on her face.

There was radio silence from her younger friends for the next few weeks. David and the boys still spoke to her but after she fought with Richie, the others seemed too scared to talk to her again. Bev came to hang out when she could, but Nightshade was still upset about what Richie had told her.

“Bev, am I a bitch?”

“No.”

They had been sitting in Nightshade’s bus listening to music and smoking for an hour in a municipal lot down the street from the library.

“It was probably because he was scared that he said it. I don’t approve of it, but he still said it.”

“I feel like the others agreed with him because none of them have talked to me. I saw Stan the other day at work because I cut his dad’s hair. He wouldn’t make eye contact with me. He always looked away when I caught him looking at me.”

“I’ve seen David and Marko trying to talk to the others around town but he told me they haven’t had any luck.”

It was hard for all of them after the incident in the Neibolt house. Everyone seemed to isolate themselves. Eddie’s mom became more protective over him and, from what Bev told Nightshade, said some nasty things to Bev and about Nightshade after she found out Eddie broke his arm.

Someone knocked on the back door of the van and Nightshade slid the door open.

“Morning, Sheriff!”

“What are you up to, girls?”

“Nothing much, just talking.”

“All the way out here?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What about those  _ other  _ friends of yours?”

“Well, Bev and I are here so I can give her a haircut later at work.”

Sheriff Bowers looked at Bev, who had extinguished her cigarette as soon as he knocked on the door.

“Hair seems short enough.”

“Just a trim.”

“Alright. You seen my boy anywhere?”

Nightshade and Bev  _ had  _ seen Henry earlier but weren’t going to tell his father that.

“No, sir, I’m afraid we haven’t,” Bev told him. Sure, he was shitty to both of them but that didn’t mean they’d sell him out to his abusive father.

He left and Nightshade slid the door shut.

“Alright, let’s get me to work.” Nightshade grabbed her umbrella and a handful of mints to get rid of the scent of cigarettes. Bev followed her down the street and they entered the salon where Nightshade worked.

Nightshade’s first customer was early and already waiting for her.

“Hey, Vic. The usual?”

“Yup.”

Victor looked uncomfortable with Bev being there, but tried to play it cool.

After Nightshade clocked in, she had Vic sit at her station and Bev sat at the next one over while Nightshade worked on Vic.

“How long have you two been friends?” Bev asked as Vic gave Nightshade the latest gossip on his friends.

“How long have I been your hair stylist?”

“Four months.”

“Well, four months, then. Apparently my type when it comes to friends is blond pretty boys.”

Bev now knew where Nightshade got all the intel she shared with David and Bev when they would hang out on weekends and after school. Victor Criss was a dirty snitch.


	12. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Second to last chapter, guys! The final showdown against the clown (which I didn't write in detail because it has been a while since I've seen IT and also fights are hard to write)

After everyone went their separate ways, it was very lonely. Nightshade really only went out during the day for work anymore and sometimes saw her old friends come in or when Mike came through town to go to the library or make a delivery. It was the worst when Eddie came in with his mom. After breaking his arm, Ms. Kaspbrak became even more protective over him and blamed everyone who had been present.

Sonia Kaspbrak was very particular about her nails. She wanted them all a uniform length, shape and always got the same pinkish-red color. Her usual technician was out of town so she had to go to Nightshade.

“Hi, Ms. Kaspbrak. Eddie, how are you holding up?” Nightshade saw the bare cast and felt a stab of pain. Eddie’s mom hadn’t let him leave to go hang out with his friends since July when he broke his arm. If the others had been around, they all would’ve signed his cast in an array of bright colors and drawings to go with it. It was so… empty.

“Don’t you talk to him!” Sonia turned her back to Nightshade to talk to Eddie. Nightshade flipped her off and drew a small smile from Eddie. Nightshade winked at him before putting her hands back in her apron pockets.

“Eddie bear, you need to go get your prescriptions from Mr. Keene at the pharmacy. I don’t want you talking to any of those hooligans who hurt you.”

Eddie left the salon and Sonia turned back to Nightshade.

“I know what you did to that Tozier boy, Miss Waters, and if I find out you’re the one who hurt my baby, it will be jail for you, sweetheart.”

“I’ve spent a night in holding before. What I did to Richie was an accident and I would never willingly hurt any of those kids. If you keep up with this abuse hidden as love, I’ll fucking report your ass to the cops.” Nightshade went back to her usual work demeanor. “Come on back to my station and choose a color!”

After Sonia left, Nightshade’s next client was ready to be taken back. This was going to be another awkward encounter. As has been previously mentioned, Nightshade cut the hair of many of her peers and their parents. One of whom was Mrs. Hockstetter. Everyone was still convinced Nightshade had killed Patrick except his mother and anyone who actually knew her.

Mrs. Hockstetter was a frail middle aged woman around Nightshade’s height with greying hair that needed to be recolored every six weeks. Nightshade knew she could color hair at home after Victor had told her Mrs. Hockstetter dyed Patrick’s hair in their kitchen sink. She probably paid to have it done to escape her son for a few hours.

Nightshade was mixing the dye when a large clatter at the front of the shop was heard.

“We need to see Nightshade!” Mike told the receptionist. Nightshade peeked around the corner at the group of all her younger friends, one of whom wasn’t there. Bev wasn’t there.

“She’s with a client. You’ll need to wait.”

“It is a matter of life and death!” Richie argued.

“I’ll be right back,” Nightshade said, continuing to mix the dye and walking around the corner into the front.

“What are you guys doing here? You made it  _ very  _ clear what you thought of me.”

“Bev’s missing.  _ It  _ took her,” Bill said. Nightshade felt her throat tighten and she nearly dropped the bowl on the floor.

“Sheila, I have to go. Lita, can you take my client?” Sheila tried protesting but Nightshade cut her off. “It is a family emergency. I have to go  _ now _ .”

Nightshade handed the bowl of dye off to Lita and didn’t bother getting rid of the rest of her gear before clocking out and running from the salon with the kids.

“It has her in Neibolt?”

“Under Neibolt. The old w-w-w-well in the basement.”

“Let’s kill ourselves a demon clown.”

Bill had already texted David, who brought the other boys and was already waiting for them in front of the house.

The house was still in a state of disarray from their last visit. Nightshade heard the distinct sound of gunfire in the distance.  _ Bowers got his dad’s gun again.  _

There was a series of multiple gunshots and then silence.

Now, normally Nightshade wouldn’t be able to smell something that far away, but a high volume of blood was the exception. She heard the screams, too. One was familiar and made Nightshade’s face lose its usual blank expression and change into one of fear and… sadness?

“What is it?” David asked, grabbing her shoulder before they went into the house.

“Davi, I think Henry just killed Vic.”

“Shit, babe, I’m sorry.”

They went down to the basement. There was a dire situation at hand and she needed to save her friend.

The well was falling apart and Mike sent a rope down for them. Mike would wait for everyone to go down before joining them.

“Mike, are you sure?” Dwayne asked. “I could stay with you.”

“Go down with the others. I’ll be fine.”

Dwayne climbed down the rope and joined the others in a tunnel that was in the side of the well. He heard the car pull up to the house and the scent of blood hit him, too.

“Mike, hurry up and get down here!”

There was a crash and they heard Mike groan.

“Michael!”

There was the sound of someone hitting stone and a scream. Whoever fell passed everyone in the tunnel.

“Mike! Are you okay?”

Dwayne was leaning out of the tunnel to look up.

“I’m fine.”

“Burn in hell, you sick bastard,” Nightshade muttered, looking down into the depths of the well.

The tunnel forked into two pathways and all of the vampires could hear some old music down one side.

“We’ll go this way,” Marko told the others.

David, Paul, Marko and Nightshade had split off down a different tunnel while the Losers and Dwayne headed in one direction.

“Do you hear that?” David asked, listening to the distant music.

“Old tinny circus music. Where is it coming from?”

“Up ahead. C’mon, there could be someone we know down there.”

David grabbed Nightshade’s hand and they all ran through the tunnel until it opened up.

A dirty red and white circus tent was up ahead and two people lingered outside.

“They look like those twins who went missing two weeks ago,” Marko commented as they all got closer. It was the Yates twins. They both wore suits that matched the tent. Red and white stripes, covered with grime and blood splatters.

“Enter if you dare.”

“The creepy twin trope is overdone, find a new act,” Nightshade said, walking backwards to face the twins as they entered the tent.

She bumped into someone very cold and let the smallest scream slip. It was just Marko.

“Easy, it was just me.”

All of the performers were familiar. They had seen their faces at school or on a missing poster. Two in particular drew their attention first.

“Is that Hockstetter as the fire breather?” Paul asked, coming up behind Nightshade and Marko. David was standing closer to see each one. Sure enough, the fire breather was a slightly mangled Patrick Hockstetter. The other performer who caught their attention was a girl at their school who had looked alarmingly similar to Nightshade. Same haircut and same shade of blonde as half of Nightshade’s hair. She had gone missing shortly after catching the attention of the Bowers gang and everyone suspected they'd killed her. Turns out  _ It _ got her.

She seemed to be a contortionist, bending her body at ungodly angles before taking notice of Nightshade and the boys watching her.

Nobody spoke to the group in the entrance. They all noticed them, though, and drew each one’s attention to a performer. Nightshade saw a bloody and dirty version of herself across the ring. This Nightshade was a little worse for wear. Her nails were broken, face dirty with smeared makeup and hair matted with roots starting to show. Another contortionist. The first girl led her over without a word. With every move she made, they heard a slight crack or pop of her bones. When she stopped to stare at the real Nightshade, she smiled, revealing fangs. That was normal. What  _ wasn't  _ was when she reached out and Nightshade grabbed her arm to stop her. It felt as though many of her bones at joints were broken. Shattered, really. Nightshade tested something and delivered a hard punch to her face. Her head rolled back with a small crunch.

“How did you die?”

Nothing. She opened her mouth but no sound came out.

“Her joints were all broken and her neck snapped.”

Nightshade looked at the two performers to her right.

“If you’re also a contortionist, how can you talk?”

“My neck wasn’t twisted all the way to the back.”

Nightshade looked back to the dead version of herself and to the girl standing with Hockstetter on her right.

“She would know that I don’t like cheap knockoffs of me.”

“Not a cheap knockoff if that’s your future.”

David’s performer was on the other side of the ring and he had his back to Nightshade.

The fear performer had his hair slicked back with grime and blood, his coat covered in mud and dust. David couldn’t see what he was doing until another tapped him on the shoulder and he turned.

David saw a large opening in his neck and the “future version” of him tilted his head back and grabbed a sword, shoving it down his own throat. David could see the rusty blade through the slit in his neck.

There was a sickening crack overhead and all of the performers erupted into applause and cheers. Two trapeze artists in the form of Marko and Paul had collided and gotten tangled in their wires. The crack had come from Paul, whose neck was snapped after his entanglement and he began to fall. Marko was more gruesome. The wires had crossed and tangled around his neck, decapitating him.

“What the fuck?!” Marko shouted, seeing both parts of him land before him.

“I got it!” the girl beside Nightshade shouted, running over. She had blatantly flirted with him on multiple occasions and he may have reciprocated multiple times. 

Nightshade and the boys met in the center of the ring.

“How the fuck do we get out of here?” Paul asked.

David saw that everyone was gathered around Marko and then glanced at the door.

“On my count, we run.”

_ One… _

Nightshade caught one of the performers watching her. 

_ Two… _

That performer started advancing on her. 

_ Three! _

Nightshade sprinted to the door and he followed her, grabbing her arm. Marko and Paul had already gotten out. They had longer legs and could outrun these decrepit performers. Nightshade, who was much smaller than the boys and the performer who grabbed her, wasn’t as lucky.

Nightshade coughed when he threw her to the ground, trying to get back up but feeling a boot press down on her chest.

She remembered not taking off her apron and only putting her jacket on over it, which meant she still had her scissors.

Nightshade reached around his leg and pulled the scissors out of her front pocket. When she got a good enough grip on them, she stabbed Hockstetter in the inner thigh, hitting where the femoral artery would be. Instead of a gush of blood, it was that same blackish fluid that got on her umbrella when the stabbed the clown’s hand.

It got the job done, though. As soon as she pulled the scissors out, he released her and Nightshade knocked him off his feet and ran out of the tent.

“Did you see anyone we know?” Nightshade asked the others. “What?”

“Babe, you’re covered in blood.”

“Collateral damage,” Nightshade said with a shrug.

“I didn’t see anyone. What were those things pretending to be us?”

“The performers near mine told me that those are the way we’re supposed to die.”

There was a whistle in the air.

“Marko, David, get down.”

The two ducked as a circular saw blade lodged itself in the wall next to Nightshade’s ear.

“If that is all you have, you have to try better!” Nightshade shouted down the tunnel. “Come on, don’t be a punk bitch! Show yourself! I wanna see the thing that’s convinced it’ll be able to kill me!” She and Paul would be next.

“Nightshade, you’re going to get yourself killed!” Marko scolded. She continued shouting and Marko’s scolding mixed with it, creating an echoing cacophony.

Telling them how they’d die was a mistake on part of the performers. Maybe they had wanted to help them, but that wasn’t likely.

When they got to the fork of tunnels, they followed the sounds of their friends splashing around. They got to where all of the kids were and she saw them trying to pull Bev down from where she was floating. Georgie was close to her, some blood on his bright yellow slicker.

_ “Nightshade.” _

Bingo.

Nightshade remained still, feeling a hand wrap around her neck.

“Let me see your face!”

It started twisting her neck and Nightshade felt a searing pain in her throat.

She grabbed the other thing she kept in her pocket and pressed it to the arm holding her up, pressing the button on top.

The arm seized up and dropped her to the ground. NIghtshade landed hard on her knees and turned to see what she expected.

“Epinephrine, bitch!”

The others were trying to stack on top of one another to get Bev down. Georgie was about a foot lower than her, but out of reach for one person alone. Dwayne and Mike had also noticed Georgie and had Mike up on Dwayne’s shoulders to get the kid down.

Everyone had somehow managed to get their friends down. Ben, acting on impulse had kissed Bev to wake her up, which had actually worked. The clown had taken multiple forms, each to scare the kids and get beaten by the kids. They weren’t scared. When it fell into the pit where it lived, all of the other floating kids started descending slowly.

The issue now would be waking Georgie up. 

“Bill, hug your brother,” Nightshade told him, rubbing his back. Bill took the suggestion and held Georgie close.

“Billy?”

Bill let out a sob and hugged his brother.

“I’m sorry, I lost her.”

“I’ll make you a new boat.”

Nightshade had Bev in a tight embrace.

“You can stay with me. I don’t want you going back to him.”

“I killed him, Nightshade.”

“Good.”

“You’re covered in that thing’s blood.”

“Nope, Hockstetter’s. It’s a long story, darling, and I’ll tell you when we leave this place.”


	13. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An ending for our fantastic summer adventure! Just something to wrap up and get some closure on what happened after everything happened.

Everything had been so hectic during the summer of 2017. When they returned to school in September, it was strange with how many people were gone. Nightshade missed the knowing glance and smile she always shared with Victor when they passed each other in the hall. She had gone to his funeral after his parents discovered he was dead. 

The kids were always at Nightshade’s house, especially since Bev lived with her now. Hemlock and Georgie ended up in the same class and were best friends so he was always needing to be driven around to meet his friend somewhere.

David was waiting at Nightshade’s locker for her before class started.

“I know you’re still upset about Victor, babe, and the others and I are taking you out.”

“How would that help? That won’t bring my friend back to life.”

“I’ll explain when we get there, I promise. This is all you’ll need to know, though. We are going to the ren faire and making a stop before we go. It will be you, me, Bev, Bill, Georgie and Stan. Trust me on this.”

“Davi…”

“Please.”

“Fine.”

“Good! I love you!”

“I love you, too!”

David kissed Nightshade before going off to English and she went down the opposite hallway with Dwayne to anatomy.

“Derry’s been really quiet since it happened. It’s only been two weeks.”

“Quiet, but for the better. I have to say, it’s nice not having to drag you away from ten fights a day.”

“But fighting people is part of my charm.”

Dwayne looked away from Nightshade as they kept walking. It had always been interesting with her getting into fights with anyone who provoked her. Now everyone who believed the Losers Club about  _ It  _ knew she was a force of nature. Other people thought the Bowers Gang killed those kids, some  _ still  _ thought it was Nightshade, a select few thought it was a serial killer or some other outlandish theory.

Nightshade and Bev waited on the porch with their costumes on, waiting for David to come pick them up. They both had cigarettes between their fingers and Nightshade was trying to do some weird trick with the lighter that Bev didn’t quite understand even when she explained it.

David pulled up while Nightshade kept trying her hand at whatever it was she wanted to do. Bev took the lighter and cigarette carton, safely storing them in her pocket.

Whatever they wanted her to see was in the woods.

“I found this while we were out hunting last and thought you should see it, too,” David explained, linking his arm with Nightshade’s as they walked. “I think Vic carved it,” he said, pointing at the shaky carving on the top of the Kissing Bridge.

_ Long live the queen bitch Nightshade Waters ~VC _

“And may all remember the legacy of that dirty snitch Victor Criss,” she muttered, smiling. She turned to face her friends. “The bitch is back.”

And anyone or anything that tried fucking with her kids ever again, they would meet that bitch.

“Tell her we missed her,” Stan replied.


End file.
